Marriage customs and nutritional status of men and women
Published in Food Policy with Bezawit B. Chichaibelu and Matin Qaim
Malnutrition remains a serious problem. While various nutrition policies exist, these often fail to consider cultural factors. We contribute to the literature on culture and nutrition, focusing on gendered differences in nutritional investment. Using representative panel data from Indonesia covering a period of 21 years, we analyze how ethnicity-based marriage customs are linked to the body mass index (BMI) of men and women. Patrilocal practices are positively associated with male BMI and negatively associated with female BMI, suggesting discrimination against women. Matrilocal practices are positively associated with female BMI when comparing with women in other cultural settings, but not when comparing with men. The practice of bridewealth is positively associated with male and female BMI when comparing to individuals in settings without this cultural practice. Wherever positive associations between marriage customs and BMI are observed, these are largest for those already overweight, whereas the negative association been patrilocality and female BMI is most pronounced among women who are underweight. Our findings suggest that marriage customs may reinforce nutritional inequalities. A better understanding of such links in different cultural settings is important for effective nutritional policies, especially given that different malnutrition problems coexist in many countries.
Macroeconomic shocks and long-term nutritional outcomes: Insights from the Asian financial crisis
Under review; written with Matin Qaim
Climate change, conflicts, pandemics, and other disruptive events can lead to shocks in people’s incomes, prices, and access to food, with profound implications for nutrition and health. The short- and long-term effects of different types of shocks are not yet sufficiently understood. Here, we use data from Indonesia to analyze effects of the Asian financial crisis, which happened in the late-1990s, on nutritional outcomes. The crisis contributed to large temporary increases in rice prices with regional variation, which we exploit to estimate effects on child height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) and other anthropometric indicators. Panel data regression models with individual fixed effects suggest that the rice price inflation led to an average decrease in HAZ of 0.16 and an increase in child stunting by 4 percentage points, after controlling for confounding factors. These effects are more pronounced in urban than rural areas. Children with mothers that only have little education suffer over-proportionally. Beyond the immediate impacts, we examine long-term effects and find that individuals severely hit by the crisis during childhood remain shorter also during adulthood and are more likely to be obese. Our findings highlight the need for nutrition-sensitive interventions in national and global crisis response policies.
