Steven A Block
Biographic Data
| ID | 4407525 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Steven A Block |
| GIVEN NAMES | Steven A |
| FAMILY NAME | Block |
| SIGNATURE | BLOCK S A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tufts University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 77 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Trade policy reform, retail food prices and access to healthy diets worldwide
Recent use of least-cost diets as a measure of global food security revealed that over 3 billion people are unable to afford sufficient nutritious food for an active and healthy life, driving demand for policy changes to improve access and affordability. This study quantifies the role of imports in consumer prices, matching retail prices in 144 countries to imports by origin of the item or its main ingredient, resulting in a total of 13,846 pairs…
Cost and affordability of nutritious diets at retail prices
Many policies and programs aim to bring nutritious diets within reach of the poor. This paper uses retail prices and nutrient composition for 671 foods and beverages to compute the daily cost of essential nutrients required for an active and healthy life in 177 countries around the world. We compare this minimum cost of nutrient adequacy with the subsistence cost of dietary energy and per-capita spending on all goods and services, to identify sty…
Climatic conditions and child height
Environmental conditions in early life are known to have impacts on later health outcomes, but causal mechanisms and potential remedies have been difficult to discern. This paper uses the Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys of 2006 and 2011, combined with earlier NASA satellite observations of variation in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) at each child's location and time of birth to identify the trimesters of gestation and peri…
Revisiting African Agriculture
Africa is largely agrarian, and the performance of agriculture shapes the performance of its economies. It has long been argued that economic development in Africa is strongly conditioned by politics. Recent changes in Africa’s political systems enables us to test this argument and, by extension, broader claims about the impact of political institutions on economic development. Building on a recent analysis of total factor productivity growth in …
Does Child Undernutrition Persist Despite Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries? Quantile Regression Results
The eradication of child undernutrition and extreme poverty are important objectives for most societies. Countries with higher national incomes usually improve in both dimensions, but not always at the same rate. Using quantile regression, we show that poverty rates tend to decline with increased income at a roughly constant elasticity. In contrast, while the prevalence of child wasting declines at that same elasticity where it is most widespread…
Maternal Nutrition Knowledge and the Demand for Micronutrient-Rich Foods
This study applies both parametric and non-parametric techniques to a new household data set from rural Indonesia to explain previous findings of a reduced-form relationship between nutrition knowledge and child micronutrient status. Households of mothers with and without nutrition knowledge allocate identical budget shares to food; yet, within the food budget, ‘knowledge’ households allocate substantially larger shares to micronutrient-rich food…
Macro shocks and micro outcomes
Political business cycles, democratization, and economic reform
Does Africa grow differently
The recovery of agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa
Political business cycles, democratization, and economic reform
Revisiting African Agriculture
Africa is largely agrarian, and the performance of agriculture shapes the performance of its economies. It has long been argued that economic development in Africa is strongly conditioned by politics. Recent changes in Africa’s political systems enables us to test this argument and, by extension, broader claims about the impact of political institutions on economic development. Building on a recent analysis of total factor productivity growth in …
Cost and affordability of nutritious diets at retail prices
Many policies and programs aim to bring nutritious diets within reach of the poor. This paper uses retail prices and nutrient composition for 671 foods and beverages to compute the daily cost of essential nutrients required for an active and healthy life in 177 countries around the world. We compare this minimum cost of nutrient adequacy with the subsistence cost of dietary energy and per-capita spending on all goods and services, to identify sty…
Trade policy reform, retail food prices and access to healthy diets worldwide
Recent use of least-cost diets as a measure of global food security revealed that over 3 billion people are unable to afford sufficient nutritious food for an active and healthy life, driving demand for policy changes to improve access and affordability. This study quantifies the role of imports in consumer prices, matching retail prices in 144 countries to imports by origin of the item or its main ingredient, resulting in a total of 13,846 pairs…
Does Africa grow differently
The recovery of agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa
Does Africa grow differently
Political business cycles, democratization, and economic reform
Maternal Nutrition Knowledge and the Demand for Micronutrient-Rich Foods
This study applies both parametric and non-parametric techniques to a new household data set from rural Indonesia to explain previous findings of a reduced-form relationship between nutrition knowledge and child micronutrient status. Households of mothers with and without nutrition knowledge allocate identical budget shares to food; yet, within the food budget, ‘knowledge’ households allocate substantially larger shares to micronutrient-rich food…
Macro shocks and micro outcomes
Does Child Undernutrition Persist Despite Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries? Quantile Regression Results
The eradication of child undernutrition and extreme poverty are important objectives for most societies. Countries with higher national incomes usually improve in both dimensions, but not always at the same rate. Using quantile regression, we show that poverty rates tend to decline with increased income at a roughly constant elasticity. In contrast, while the prevalence of child wasting declines at that same elasticity where it is most widespread…
Revisiting African Agriculture
Africa is largely agrarian, and the performance of agriculture shapes the performance of its economies. It has long been argued that economic development in Africa is strongly conditioned by politics. Recent changes in Africa’s political systems enables us to test this argument and, by extension, broader claims about the impact of political institutions on economic development. Building on a recent analysis of total factor productivity growth in …
Climatic conditions and child height
Environmental conditions in early life are known to have impacts on later health outcomes, but causal mechanisms and potential remedies have been difficult to discern. This paper uses the Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys of 2006 and 2011, combined with earlier NASA satellite observations of variation in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) at each child's location and time of birth to identify the trimesters of gestation and peri…
Cost and affordability of nutritious diets at retail prices
Many policies and programs aim to bring nutritious diets within reach of the poor. This paper uses retail prices and nutrient composition for 671 foods and beverages to compute the daily cost of essential nutrients required for an active and healthy life in 177 countries around the world. We compare this minimum cost of nutrient adequacy with the subsistence cost of dietary energy and per-capita spending on all goods and services, to identify sty…
Trade policy reform, retail food prices and access to healthy diets worldwide
Recent use of least-cost diets as a measure of global food security revealed that over 3 billion people are unable to afford sufficient nutritious food for an active and healthy life, driving demand for policy changes to improve access and affordability. This study quantifies the role of imports in consumer prices, matching retail prices in 144 countries to imports by origin of the item or its main ingredient, resulting in a total of 13,846 pairs…
Economics (9 works) · Agriculture (4 works) · Child Nutrition and Water Access (4 works) · Development economics (4 works) · Economic growth (4 works) · Medicine (4 works) · Agricultural economics (3 works) · Business (3 works) · Environmental health (3 works) · Macroeconomics (3 works)