Files
Abstract
This paper investigates the law of motion for the cross-section distribution of dietary
energy supply (DES) in the world. This has been pursued using the distribution approach
and a panel of 152 countries for the period 1961-2001. According to the empirical
results, persistence in caloric intakes dominates in the short-run. With time, however,
upwards mobility gains momentum and the world is moving towards a long-run
distribution, which is strongly skewed to the left. The estimated expected first passage
times from extreme under-supply to higher intake levels are consistent with speculations
that most of the developing countries will attain the 3000 kcal per person per day level
by the year 2030.