Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/20327 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 1092
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper uses data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) to examine the relationship between nutritional status and both longer-run household resources and short-run fluctuations in household resources. We evaluate six measures of nutrition – gross energy intake, two dimensions of diet quality, body mass index (BMI), which is a measure of net energy intake for adults, and for children, weight for height and stature. Our finding indicate a clear positive effect of longer-run resources on energy intake, diet composition, adult BMI, and child stature. Between 1996 and 2000, Russian households experienced a dramatic decline in income and expenditure and then an equally dramatic rise. We exploit the panel nature of RLMS to identify the causal effect of changes in household resources on nutritional status. In contrast to the large decline in expenditure in 1998, nutritional status appears to be very resilient to variation in household resources and this is reflected in gross energy intake, adult BMI, and child stature, which all change very little as expenditure deviates from its long-run average. Diet composition, however, does change in response to transitory variation in household resources. It appears that individuals and households are able to weather large economic crises at least in terms of maintaining body mass and energy intake.
Subjects: 
nutrition
caloric intake
BMI
consumption smoothing
economic shocks
Russia
economic crises
JEL: 
D12
P36
O12
I12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
402.29 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.