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MEASUREMENT OF MALNUTRITION IN THE THIRD WORLD *
Author(s) -
Kobbe P.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.157
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1477-9552
pISSN - 0021-857X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1477-9552.1986.tb01608.x
Subject(s) - malnutrition , econometrics , work (physics) , sensitivity (control systems) , confidence interval , statistics , economics , computer science , mathematics , economic growth , engineering , mechanical engineering , electronic engineering
This paper focuses on the measurement of malnutrition in the Third World. Given the lack of adequate data on malnutrition, its quantification involves the use of fairly roundabout methods. This paper reviews two World Bank studies, which link calorie consumption to income using a semi‐log functional form. The first employs arbitrarily imposed equation parameters to arrive at estimates of malnutrition. We calculate alternative nutritional scenarios to illustrate the sensitivity of their results to the arbitrarily imposed parameters. For the second study, which has been empirically estimated, we calculate forecast confidence intervals to evaluate the estimated equations' forecasting performance. Our results indicate that the first study is highly sensitive to the arbitrarily imposed parameters, while the second is not very reliable in forecasting malnutrition. The importance of further work on the subject is therefore stressed.