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Banerjee and Duflo on Hunger

Last updated on May 1, 2011

From a Foreign Policy article by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo on hunger in developing countries:

“The poor often resist the wonderful plans we think up for them because they do not share our faith that those plans work, or work as well as we claim. We shouldn’t forget, too, that other things may be more important in their lives than food. Poor people in the developing world spend large amounts on weddings, dowries, and christenings. Part of the reason is probably that they don’t want to lose face, when the social custom is to spend a lot on those occasions. In South Africa, poor families often spend so lavishly on funerals that they skimp on food for months afterward.”

The whole thing does an excellent good job discussing several aspects of food policy in developing countries, so I am thinking of including it as light reading in the development seminar I teach in the fall.