DO CONSUMER PRICE SUBSIDIES REALLY IMPROVE NUTRITION?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Jensen, Robert T.; Miller, Nolan H.
• 署名单位: Brown University; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Illinois System; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/REST_a_00118
• 发表日期: 2011-11
• 页码: 1205-1223
• 关键词: food; HEALTH; income; consumption

摘要

Many developing countries use food-price subsidies or controls to improve nutrition. However, subsidizing goods on which households spend a high proportion of their budget can create large wealth effects. Consumers may then substitute toward foods with higher nonnutritional attributes (such as taste) but lower nutritional content per unit of currency, weakening or perhaps even reversing the subsidy's intended impact. We analyze data from a randomized program of large price subsidies for poor households in two provinces of China and find no evidence that the subsidies improved nutrition. In fact, they may have had a negative impact for some households.