Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Summaries
- Chapter 1 Air Pollution: Global Damage Costs from 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 2 Armed Conflicts: The Economic Welfare Costs of Conflict
- Chapter 3 Climate Change: The Economic Impact of Climate Change in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Chapter 4 Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Economic Loss of Ecosystem Services from 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 5 Education: The Income and Equity Loss of not Having a Faster Rate of Human Capital Accumulation
- Chapter 6 Gender Inequality: A Key Global Challenge – Reducing Losses due to Gender Inequality
- Chapter 7 Human Health: The Twentieth-Century Transformation of Human Health – Its Magnitude and Value
- Chapter 8 Malnutrition: Global Economic Losses Attributable to Malnutrition 1900–2000 and Projections to 2050
- Chapter 9 Trade Barriers: Costing Global Trade Barriers, 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 10 Water and Sanitation: Economic Losses from Poor Water and Sanitation – Past, Present, and Future
- Index
- References
Chapter 8 - Malnutrition: Global Economic Losses Attributable to Malnutrition 1900–2000 and Projections to 2050
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Summaries
- Chapter 1 Air Pollution: Global Damage Costs from 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 2 Armed Conflicts: The Economic Welfare Costs of Conflict
- Chapter 3 Climate Change: The Economic Impact of Climate Change in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Chapter 4 Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Economic Loss of Ecosystem Services from 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 5 Education: The Income and Equity Loss of not Having a Faster Rate of Human Capital Accumulation
- Chapter 6 Gender Inequality: A Key Global Challenge – Reducing Losses due to Gender Inequality
- Chapter 7 Human Health: The Twentieth-Century Transformation of Human Health – Its Magnitude and Value
- Chapter 8 Malnutrition: Global Economic Losses Attributable to Malnutrition 1900–2000 and Projections to 2050
- Chapter 9 Trade Barriers: Costing Global Trade Barriers, 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 10 Water and Sanitation: Economic Losses from Poor Water and Sanitation – Past, Present, and Future
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
The two-way link between improved nutrition and higher income is well known. Higher income allows people to obtain a more varied and nutritious diet. Higher income is associated with improved sanitation and health, such that there is less loss of nutrients associated with infection. More maternal education (associated with higher income) is associated with better infant feeding practices, and mothers who are better able to obtain care for themselves during pregnancy. Of course, higher income also can bring with it an overly sedentary lifestyle, excess consumption of fat and added sugar, and associated risks of non-communicable disease. However in this chapter we focus on the beneficial aspects of income for nutrition because a large share of the world’s population was stunted during much or most of the twentieth century.
Similarly, better nutrition is associated with higher productivity. Better-nourished individuals are more productive in physical labor, because of higher stamina, higher maximal work output, etc. Better-nourished infants and young children have improved cognitive skills, which translate to higher productivity as adults. We use the results from micro-level data to disentangle the effect of nutrition on productivity from that of income on nutrition, making broad estimates over the past century for various world regions.
- Type
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- How Much Have Global Problems Cost the World?A Scorecard from 1900 to 2050, pp. 247 - 272Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013
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