Essays in food security in Latin America

This dissertation analyzes food and nutrition security from three different perspectives, covering issues related to undernourishment and malnutrition. The first essay uses data from the 2011 household expenditure survey from Guatemala to estimate the prevalence of food insecurity, to analyze factors associated with food insecurity and to evaluate the impact of policies aimed to address the food insecurity problem using two household access food security indicators, the Latin-America and the Caribbean Food Security Scale (ELCSA) and IFPRI’s household level undernourishment. The results showed important differences in the food insecurity prevalence estimates across regions and income quintiles as well as different interpretations of the factors affecting food insecurity in Guatemala. The second essay used data from the 2013 and 2014 household expenditure surveys from El Salvador to estimate and compare nutrient elasticities for 15 nutrients through two different modelling approaches, reduced form models and demand system approaches. In the first one the demand for nutrients was directly modeled as a function of prices, income and socio-demographic characteristics, whereas in the demand system approach the demand for food was modeled and subsequently the demand for nutrients using information on nutrient composition of the foods. The nutrient elasticities were compared using percentage differences, confidence intervals of the differences and root mean squared errors. Differences were found in the magnitudes and signs of the nutrient elasticities but also important consistencies in the interpretation of the nutritional impact economic shocks in El Salvador. The last essay used data from a panel of Ecuadorean households was to estimate the effect of a "traffic-light" supplemental nutritional labeling on the consumption of carbonated soft drinks by Ecuadorians by estimating an unconditional demand system that incorporated the labeling as a demand shifter. The results show that the introduction of the “traffic-light” label has not had the expected effect on the consumption of carbonated soft drinks in Ecuador.