Abstract
Today the ultimate Malthusian check of ‘gigantic, inevitable famine’ is confined to the very poorest pockets of the globe. Economic development, medical technology and the globalization of disaster relief have reduced the size and duration of famines in the recent past. On the other hand, totalitarianism and the enhanced role of human agency produced in the 20th century some of the biggest famines ever. Topics discussed include the demography and long-run impact of famine, the role of public and private action in relieving those at risk, and how markets function during famines.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsBibliography
Banik, D. 2002. Democracy, drought and starvation in India: Testing Sen in theory and practice. PhD thesis, Department of Political Science, University of Oslo.
Barber, J., and A. Dzeniskevich, eds. 2005. Life and death in Leningrad, 1941–44. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Barker, D.J.P., ed. 1992. Fetal and infant origins of adult disease. London: BMJ Publishing Group.
Besley, T., and S. Coate. 1992. Workfare vs. welfare: Incentive arguments for work requirements in poverty alleviation programs. American Economic Review 82: 249–261.
Davies, R.W., and S.G. Wheatcroft. 2004. The years of hunger: Soviet agriculture, 1931–33. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Davis, M. 2001. Late victorian holocausts. London: Pluto.
Devereux, S. 2000. Famine in the twentieth century. Working Paper No. 105, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.
De Waal, A. 1997. Famine crimes: Politics and the disaster relief industry in Africa. Oxford: James Currey.
Drèze, J., and A. Sen. 1989. Hunger and public action. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dyson, T., and C. Ó Gráda, eds. 2002a. Famine demography: Perspectives from the past and present. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hionidou, V. 2006. Famine and death in occupied Greece, 1941–1944. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Howe, P., and S. Devereux. 2004. Famine intensity and magnitude scales: A proposal for an instrumental definition of famine. Disasters 28: 353–372.
Khoroshinina, L. 2005. Long-term effects of lengthy starvation in childhood among survivors of the siege. Barber and Dzeniskevich 2005.
Kozlov, I., and A. Samsonova. 2005. The impact of the siege on the physical development of children. Barber and Dzeniskevich 2005.
Maddison, A. 2006. World population, GDP and per capita GDP, 1–2003 AD (2006 update). Online. Available at http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/. Accessed 31 Jan 2007.
Maharatna, A. 1996. The demography of famines: An Indian historical perspective. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Mokyr, J., and C. Ó Gráda. 2002. What do people die of during famines? The great Irish famine in comparative perspective. European Review of Economic History 6: 339–364.
Ó Gráda, C. 2005. Markets and famines in pre-industrial Europe. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 26: 143–166.
Ó Gráda, C. 2007. Making famine history. Journal of Economic Literature 31: 3–36.
Persson, K.-G. 1999. Grain markets in Europe 1500-1900, integration and regulation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ravallion, M. 1987. Markets and famines. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ravallion, M. 1997. Famines and economics. Journal of Economic Literature 35: 1205–1242.
Sen, A. 1981. Poverty and famines: An essay on entitlement and deprivation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sen, A. 2001. Development as freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Shiue, C.H. 2004. Local granaries and central government disaster relief: moral hazard and intergovernmental finance in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century China. Journal of Economic History 64: 100–124.
Tauger, M. 2006. Arguing from errors: on certain issues in Robert Davies’ and Stephen Wheatcroft’s analysis of the Soviet grain harvest and the Great Soviet Famine of 1931–33. Europe–Asia Studies 58: 973–984.
Yao, S. 1999. A note on the causal factors of China’s famine in 1959–1961. Journal of Political Economy 107: 1365–1369.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Gráda, C.Ó. (2018). Famines. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_24
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_24
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95188-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95189-5
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences