How Widespread is Undernourishment? A Critique of Measurement Methods and New Empirical Results

Posted: 17 Apr 2001

See all articles by Silke Gabbert

Silke Gabbert

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Na

Hans-Peter Weikard

Wageningen University and Research (WUR) - School of Social Sciences

Abstract

Programmes against hunger require the identification of the undernourished. For this purpose a cutoff point is fixed which partitions the population of a region into two groups: those with insufficient access to food and those whose food needs are satisfied. We describe the standard method used to set the cutoff point. We explain how the choice of a unique cutoff point for a group of people may underestimate or overestimate undernourishment when requirements vary across people. Furthermore, we present corrected estimates of the proportion of the undernourished for a large sample of developing countries. Our results reveal that the estimation error of the standard method can be large.

Keywords: measuring undernourishment, dietary energy requirements, food security in developing countries

JEL Classification: I12, I32, O15

Suggested Citation

Gabbert, Silke and Weikard, Hans-Peter, How Widespread is Undernourishment? A Critique of Measurement Methods and New Empirical Results. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=263274

Silke Gabbert

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Na ( email )

Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
Economic and Social Department
00100 Rome
ITALY

Hans-Peter Weikard (Contact Author)

Wageningen University and Research (WUR) - School of Social Sciences ( email )

De Leeuwenborch
Hollandseweg 1
6706 KN Wageningen
Netherlands
+31 317 48 24 94 (Phone)
+31 317 48 49 33 (Fax)

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