Nutrition Intake and Economic Growth: A causality study on five countries in Southern Africa

Abstract: The relationship between a population’s nutrition intake and economic growth has been receiving an increasing amount of attention in economic literature. Although the correlation of these factors has been quite well established, the direction of the causality remains somewhat unclear: Is it nutrition intake that leads to economic growth or does economic growth lead to improved nutrition levels, or does the causality run in both directions in a self-reinforcing mechanism? It is reasonable to believe that the causal direction could have significant policy implications, particularly for developing economies in which the level of nutrition still lies significantly below recommended levels. This study uses time series of GDP/capita and two indicators of nutrition intake (average daily calorie intake per capita and average daily protein intake per capita) to test the direction of the growth-nutrition causality in five countries in the region of Southern Africa, which all display relatively severe rates of malnutrition. The Granger causality test is employed for this purpose. The obtained results reveal some evidence that nutrition Granger-causes economic growth. The opposite relationship, i.e. that of growth Granger-causing nutrition, receives however very little support.