Nutritional status, the capacity for work, and poverty traps

Abstract

In this article I argue that recent empirical criticisms of the nutrition-based efficiency-wage theory for poor countries have been off the mark because of their dependence on too literal an interpretation of the timeless model. Findings by nutritionists on the phenomenon of undernourishment are presented and the impact of early nutrition and morbidity on long-term work capacity is stressed. It is then argued that the timeless nutrition-productivity construct provides a metaphor, not so much for the phenomenon of involuntary unemployment, but for something else, namely, an economic environment harboring poverty traps, into which some are drawn even when others, who may be similar, are not. The mechanism underlying poverty traps is sketched and certain policy conclusions are drawn.