Undernourishment and Economic Growth : The Efficiency Cost of Hunger (Economic & Social Development Papers)

This paper investigates the effect of undernourishment on economic growth.

In addition to the basic relationship on health, a number of other important relationships are investigated: (a) regional differences regarding the impact of under-nourishment on growth; (b) the impact that possible errors in measuring nutritional variables may have on the robustness of the estimated nutrition-growth relationship; and (c) the existence of "nutritional traps", i.e. the vicious circle of low nutrition-low economic growth-low nutrition.

The basic conclusion of the paper - that undernourishment can be a serious handicap in the efforts of countries to achieve economic growth - suggests that actions taken to feed the hungry have a strong growth dimension in addition to their humanitarian character.