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Poverty and Nutrition: A Case Study of Rural Households in Thailand and Viet Nam

Author

Listed:
  • Waibel, Hermann

    (Asian Development Bank Institute)

  • Hohfeld, Lena

    (Asian Development Bank Institute)

Abstract
We analyze the link between nutrition and poverty in two Asian countries where monetary-based poverty reduction was especially successful. Thailand and Viet Nam are two emerging market economies where poverty rates are now below 10% and are declining further. Despite this success, it is not clear to what extent it has translated into similar improvements in the nutritional situation of the people, and especially of children. We find that undernutrition continues to be a problem in Viet Nam with child underweight rates of 27% and therefore higher than headcount rates of the $1.25 poverty line. Also, Thailand, after the economic crisis, with 19% of children underweight, is still above the World Health Organization’s threshold. We investigate the factors that influence nutrition outcomes, measured as Z-scores of the weight-for-age indicator, by using Tobit regressions for four different groups of children, based on income (poor vs. non-poor) and nutrition (underweight vs. non-underweight). We find that poverty and income influence nutrition outcomes, but other factors such as mother’s height, education, migration and sanitation also affect nutrition. Coefficients of respective variables differ by poverty status. Our conclusion that non-monetary factors matter to reduce undernutrition, and, therefore, monetary poverty reduction is not a sufficient condition, is further underlined by a prediction of future undernutrition rates based on regressions. Also, we find that, even under the assumption of high growth, income growth alone will not be able to reduce undernutrition to a level of low severity until the year 2030.

Suggested Citation

  • Waibel, Hermann & Hohfeld, Lena, 2016. "Poverty and Nutrition: A Case Study of Rural Households in Thailand and Viet Nam," ADBI Working Papers 623, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0623
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Pahlisch, Thi Hoa & Parvathi, Priyanka & Waibel, Hermann, 2018. "Urbanization and child malnutrition: A comparison of three countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region," TVSEP Working Papers wp-012, Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, Institute for Environmental Economics and World Trade, Project TVSEP.
    2. Franziska Sohns & Javier Revilla Diez, 2018. "Explaining micro entrepreneurship in rural Vietnam—a multilevel analysis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 219-237, January.
    3. Pahlisch, Thi Hoa & Parvathi, Priyanka & Waibel, Hermann, 2017. "Comparing peri-urban versus rural poverty and child malnutrition reduction: Insights from Southeast Asia," TVSEP Working Papers wp-005, Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, Institute for Environmental Economics and World Trade, Project TVSEP.
    4. Yahaya Sani & Miklas Scholz, 2022. "Interplay of Water–Energy Security and Food Consumption Patterns towards Achieving Nutrition Security in Katsina State, North-Western Nigeria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-20, April.
    5. Pinaki Das & Sk Md Abul Basar, 2020. "Are the Non-poor Households Nutritionally Secure? An Assessment from NSSO Unit Level Data in India Between 2004–2005 and 2011–2012," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 14(2), pages 182-201, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Poverty; nutrition; undernutrition; income growth; poverty reduction;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General

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