Abstract
Food is a basic necessity but in some parts of the world, having three meals a day or even two is already considered a luxury. This injustice illustrates the concept of food insecurity which occurs when people become unsure if and when their next meal will come, and when they are not able to afford the food that they want to eat. Food security can be ensured if people can always buy the basic food that they are accustomed to.
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- 1.
The costs of a food basket in local currencies do not allow us to compare them across countries. The costs have thus to be measured in some international currency such as U.S. dollar. The conversion of local currency to U.S. dollar is accomplished using purchasing power parity exchange rates, which account for differences in the costs of living across countries.
- 2.
For an excellent discussion of inter- and intra-personal variations, see Osmani (1992b).
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
These are just assumptions and not based on any scientific study.
- 6.
Recently, the FAO has adopted a more flexible model of skewed normal and log-normal distributions introduced by Azzalini (1985) with the results published in The State of Food Security in the World 2012. It is not reported how well these distributions fit to the data. The loss of efficiency due to grouping still remains.
- 7.
An elaborate history and analytical properties of log-normal distribution are presented by Aitchison and Brown (1957).
- 8.
Iyenger (1960) extensively used log-normal distribution to analyze consumption patterns in India.
- 9.
See De Weerdt et al. (2014).
- 10.
See FAO, World Health Organization, and United Nations University (1985).
- 11.
Alderman (1993) has provided an excellent review of econometric techniques, which have been used in the literature to estimate the calorie-intake elasticity.
- 12.
Carbohydrates are the main source of energy for the human body and are obtained from food such as whole-grain cereals and breads, pasta, corn, beans, peas, potatoes, fruit, vegetables, and milk products.
- 13.
Fats are important for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins A, D, E, and K. They also provide essential fatty acids, which are important for the structure and function of cells, and cushion vital organs and protects the body from extreme cold and heat.
- 14.
Proteins are complex nitrogen-containing compounds that build and repair body tissue. Protein deficiency can retard growth and development and inhibit the body’s ability to fight infection.
- 15.
The total amount of goods and services produced within a year is measured through GDP and per capita GDP measures the total output that on average is available to each person.
- 16.
The authors are grateful to Jacques Silber for suggesting the compound interest formula to be used to estimate the number of years for this study.
- 17.
People living on less than $1.25 a day in 2005 PPP are trapped in extreme poverty. This poverty line was adopted to monitor the Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty in 25 years between 1990 and 2015.
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Kakwani, N., Son, H.H. (2016). Measuring Food Insecurity: Global Estimates. In: Social Welfare Functions and Development. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58325-3_9
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