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Does economic growth always improve residents' dietary nutrition? Long-run relationships and phase differences in
Junda Shen1,2, Yichuan Zeng3
1International College Beijing, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
Background:
China has experienced sustained economic growth alongside major changes in agricultural institutions, food circulation, and market openness. Whether economic growth improves residents' dietary nutrition under these changing conditions remains unclear.
Methods:
We use annual data for China from 1961 to 2018 to examine the long-run relationship between gross domestic product growth and residents' dietary nutrition. We employ autoregressive distributed lag models to identify the long-run relationship in the full sample, and then conduct segmented regressions based on major historical phases of China's economic development.
Results:
In the full sample, economic growth is positively associated with both nutritional quantity and nutritional quality in the long run, but this relationship is not stable over time. Before 1978, the relationship between economic growth and nutritional quantity in China is not significant, whereas after 1978 it becomes significantly positive. The relationship between economic growth and nutritional quality is significantly negative before 1978 and turns significantly positive thereafter. The relationship between economic growth and nutritional outcomes is clearly phase-specific, and its patterns differ between nutritional quantity and nutritional quality.
Conclusions:
Economic growth does not translate into nutritional improvement in a uniform way. In China, the relationship between economic growth and nutritional outcomes depends on the historical phase and differs between nutritional quantity and nutritional quality. Understanding the nutritional consequences of economic growth requires placing them in the broader context of institutional transformation and the evolution of the food system.
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