Distribution Dynamics of Dietary Energy Supply in the World

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.caloric intakes, mobility, World, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, C10, D12,