HEALTH AND HUNGER: DISEASE, ENERGY NEEDS, AND THE INDIAN CALORIE CONSUMPTION PUZZLE

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Duh, Josephine; Spears, Dean
• 署名单位: University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin; The Brattle Group
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12417
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 2378-2409
• 关键词: height; GROWTH; mortality; diarrhea; LIFE; interventions; enteropathy; sanitation; nutrition; wages

摘要

India's experience presents a puzzle at odds with a basic fact of household economics: amidst unprecedented economic growth, average per capita daily calorie consumption has declined in recent decades. Does an improving disease environment explain the calorie decline? A diminished burden of infectious disease could lower energy needs by increasing absorption and effective use of calories. We document a robust effect of disease exposure-measured as infant mortality and as poor sanitation-on calorie consumption. Similar effects are found using multiple datasets and empirical strategies. Disease can account for an important fraction (one-fifth or more) of India's calorie decline.