Abstract:
Do Social Safety Net (SSN) programs increase household’s calorie consumption? To answer this question, we employ Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2010 data from Bangladesh covering 12241 households. Our overall result is that the SSN programs do not significantly affect household’s calorie consumption especially for the people whose calorie consumption is lower than required. This finding remains robust even after matching for economic and demographic factors. These results are not surprising since the SSN programs are highly fragmented and emerge as a somewhat ad hoc fashion to meet the needs of an ongoing economic or social crisis caused by an exogenous shock. This paper also finds that income is not robustly related to calorie consumption but living area and household’s size are strongly linked to calorie consumption.
JEL Classification: H 55, C21, C31, H31
Description:
This thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Social Science in Economics of East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
