Food Price Inflation and Child Health: An Investigation into the Short-Run Effects of the 2002 Food Crisis on the Health Status of Children in Malawi

In 2002 Malawi faced a major food crisis by country standards. Based on theory and empirics, this shock is expected to have a temporary, as well as, lasting effect on the health status of children. Focusing on the short-term, the paper tries to quantify the impact of the event with respect to changes in child mortality, stunting, wasting, and the degree of underweight. With data from the Malawian Demographic and Health Surveys of the years 2000 and 2004, I exploit district variation in the severity of the crisis to measure the short-run consequences. I find that the shock did not lead to a significant increase in the probability of child mortality in the affected areas. Furthermore, the results indicate that the crisis did not have an effect on acute undernutrition. Children from regions experiencing severe food shortages exhibit 0.14 SD higher weight-for-age and 0.15 SD higher height-for-age z-scores. The affirmative outcome on the indicators for the degree of underweight and chronic malnutrition could, for example, be attributed to successful interventions. Not finding a significant short-run impact, however, does not automatically imply that a period of limited food availability does not have long-run consequences.