Micro-economic theory of the household and nutrition programmes

Abstract

The economic theory of the household and econometrics portray and measure household behaviour in response to external stimuli such as those generated by market forces and policy interventions. The paper outlines the potential contribution of this theory, through a series of hypotheses and their empirical testing, to better policy making and programming. This serves the following functions: 1) establishing which determinants of risk should be monitored to anticipate malnutrition problems that are not related to overall food supply; 2) targeting interventions according to the hypothesized or observed determinants of the risks rather than on the basis of costly screening; 3) deciding whether to follow a health, nutrition, or combined policy to improve nutritional status; 4) designing appropriate intervention; 5) evaluating the household's response to the intervention; and 6) evaluating programme impact. -from Authors