NUTRITIONAL EFFICIENCY WAGES - A POLICY FRAMEWORK

This paper uses a dynamic model of nutritional efficiency wages to inv estigate the effect of policy changes on nutritional status. Employers 'invest' in the nutritional status of their long-term workers to impr ove productivity, and also to influence the probability of breakdown w hich ecessitates new hiring and investment. Thus, some workers obtain employment at wages exceeding their reservation level, and the remaind er are self-employed. The nutritional status of self-employed workers is determined by per-capita resources in that sector. The nutritional status which an employer chooses for employed workers varies inversely with the nutritional status of the unemployed population. Nutritional supplements provided to unemployed workers leads to an increase in fo rmal employment and a reduction in nutritional inequality (by the Lore nz criterion). An increase in export demand also has the same effect, as does migration of workers out of the economy. (C) 1997 Elsevier Sci ence B.V.