Welfare State Spending, Income Inequality and Food Insecurity in Affluent Nations: A Cross-National Examination of OECD Countries

Abstract

Few studies examine the distribution of food insecurity in advanced capitalist nations. This research investigates cross-national food insecurity in the world’s largest economies by estimating the impact of welfare spending and income inequality on food availability (measured by the FAO’s Dietary Energy and Protein Supply indicators) and food accessibility (measured by the Food Insecurity Experience Scale) in 36 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries between the years of 2000 and 2018. Using a series of regression models on panel and cross-sectional data this research found that increases in state spending on social and health care are associated with (1) increases in food availability and (2) increases in food access. However, the findings also suggest that increases in food supplies do not produce more food security. Thus, for the OECD countries in this analysis, food availability is unrelated to food accessibility. We conclude by suggesting that high income countries that seek to promote global health should not only focus their efforts on poverty reduction polices that increase food accessibility within their own boarders, but must simultaneously ensure a more equitable global distribution of food.

Social innovation and food provisioning initiatives to reduce food insecurity during the Covid-19 pandemic

“…Some believe that difficulties in accessing food are common only in developing countries. On the contrary, they are also present in developed countries ( Hossain et al, 2021 ), including Europe ( Penne & Goedemé, 2021 ) and Italy ( Marchetti & Secondi, 2022 ), even before the outbreak of the recent pandemic. Pre-existing inequalities refer to food injustices among people, and result in serious repercussions for the most vulnerable groups ( Abigail & Zheng, 2021 ; Bellamy et al, 2021 ; Naidu-Ghelani, 2020 ) and territories.…”

Does unemployment affect the relationship between income inequality and food security?

“…The traditional approach of measuring food security using dietary intakes has been to select an optimal caloric intake based on a recommended daily allowance (Maxwell et al, 1999). However, it is important to note that adequate food availability alone cannot explain food insecurity (Hossain et al, 2021). Food insecurity is not a problem of food retail access or poor food skills, but rather a problem of people's abilities to afford the food they need.…”

Profiles of Food Insecurity: Similarities and Differences across Selected CEE Countries

“…In the scientific literature, much attention has been allocated to FI in the less-developed countries of South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America [40][41][42][43][44]. Research on FI in developed countries has also begun to develop as the problem has been noticed and analyzed [22,[45][46][47][48][49].…”