Convergence and determinants of change in nutrient supply: Evidence from sub-Saharan African countries
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use cross-country data to investigate whether convergence process exists in per capital nutrient supply and also identify the determinants of change in per capita nutrient supply in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
Design/methodology/approach
Annual time series data for 43 countries covering 1975-2009 that yields balanced panel were employed for the analysis. The convergence hypothesis is examined based on the neoclassical growth model using feasible generalized least square approach that is robust to autocorrelation and cross-sectional dependence.
Findings
The empirical results lend support to existence of convergence process in nutrient supply in SSA. Evidence of convergence in nutrient supply may have contributed to observed reduction in incidence of food-poverty in the region, which aligns with the argument in literature that recent Africa food security gains are due to food imports. The results of the determinants of change in nutrient supply showed that, global food trade represented by trade openness consistently increased growth in nutrient supply across countries in SSA significantly. Meanwhile, the speed of convergence of per capita nutrient supply, which measures how quickly growth in nutrient supply increases over time is very low, as this calls for urgent policy attention in the region.
Originality/value
The very first study to investigate convergence in food consumption and nutritional supply in SSA.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the JSPS toward his postdoctoral fellowship at Kyushu University, Fukuoka and also for providing Grants-Aid-for-Scientific Research-KAKENHI with ID No. 24-02406 for the research between 2012/2014. The authors thank the anonymous reviewers of this paper for their insightful comments and suggestions on the earlier draft of the paper. The authors equally thank Professor Adebayo Aromolaran for reading and discussing earlier draft of the paper. Authors are responsible for all remaining errors.
Citation
Ogundari, K. and Ito, S. (2015), "Convergence and determinants of change in nutrient supply: Evidence from sub-Saharan African countries", British Food Journal, Vol. 117 No. 12, pp. 2880-2898. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-04-2015-0123
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited