Differences in food insecurity across the rural/urban spectrum—The role of trade flows

Abstract

There has been little work relating food flows with food insecurity, and how inter-county trading can drive differences across the rural/urban divide. Using rural–urban continuum codes in combination with a new data set on food flows at the county level we examine the correlation between food insecurity and trade. Results indicate heterogeneous impacts of food trade flows and county types on food insecurity rates. From Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions we find that differences between rural and metropolitan counties are largely due to explained factors, but differences between nonmetropolitan, nonrural counties and the other county types are unexplained factors.