ABSTRACT
Food security is widely defined as 'access by all people at all times to enough food for an active healthy life'. Food security is, therefore, ultimately a household and individual-level issue. The general understanding has been that food insecurity and hunger are primarily the result of poverty. With economic growth and improved incomes, poor households will have the ability, and presumably the desire, to obtain an adequate diet, at least in terms of food energy (calories). By the mid-1980s, certain conclusions concerning the income elasticity for food seemed warranted since they were based on many different research studies. Intra-household allocation has been the subject of substantial research efforts by economists over the last dozen years. Nutritional (health) status is typically measured by anthropometric indicators, for example weight and height in comparison to a reference group. Many prefer to use the more general term 'health status' for such indicators. Behrman and Deolalikar provide an excellent review of this research area.
