The impacts of undernutrition on labor productivity: empirical evidence for rural area in Brazil

Marinho, Emerson Luís Lemos; França, João Mário Santos de; Campêlo, Guaracyane Lima; Badagnan, Thaisa França

doi:10.1590/1806-9479.2025.293231

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ARTICLE • Rev. Econ. Sociol. Rural 63 • 2025 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9479.2025.293231 linkcopy

The impacts of undernutrition on labor productivity: empirical evidence for rural area in Brazil

Os impactos da subnutrição na produtividade do trabalho: evidência empírica para a área rural do Brasil

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstracts

Abstract This article investigates the impact of undernutrition on labor productivity in rural Brazil by analyzing the Nutritional Poverty Trap (NPT). It examines the effects of vitamin A, B1, B2, iron, and calorie intake on the income of household heads across the Agricultural, Non-agricultural, Self-employed, and other employment sectors. A variation of the Dubin and McFadden (1984) method is employed to correct for selection bias using multinomial logit models. The analysis is based on data from the Household Budget Surveys (POF) for the years 2002–2003, 2008–2009, and 2017–2018. The results suggest that, although rural workers' diets have improved over time, nutritional deficiencies persist in the Agricultural and Non-agricultural sectors, contributing to low labor productivity. These findings are explained by ongoing deficiencies in micronutrients and calorie intake, which serve as a central mechanism of the NPT by diminishing workers’ physical and cognitive capacity, thereby limiting their income-generating opportunities and perpetuating the cycle of poverty.

Keywords:
nutrition-based poverty trap; calorie intake; micronutrient deprivation; rural poverty

Dependent Variable	Description	Situation
Occup	Occupacional decision	0: Work in the Agricultural sector
		1: Work in the Non-agricultural sector
		2: Self-employement
		3 Other Jobs
Explanatory Variables for Family Characteristics:
agehead	Years of age of the head of the family	Numeric
agehead²	Squared value of the head of the family's age	Numeric
adultm	Number of adult males in the family	Numeric
sizehous	Number of components in the family	Numeric
adultf	Number of adult females in the family	Numeric
averainfall	Average rainfall	Numeric
dsex	Dummy variable indicating the sex of the head of the household	0 female
dsex		1 male
dlocal	Dummy variable indicating the location	0 State is not located on the coast
dlocal	Dummy variable indicating the location	1 State is located on the coast

Variables	Agricultural	Non-Agricultural	Self-Employment	Other Jobs
Variables	Mean	Mean	Mean	Mean
Total income of head of household	4411.540	4804.440	4197.73	9883.03
Total income of head of household	(-269.17)	(71,095)	(104.86)	(411.43)
Number of adult males in the family	1.3	1.04	1.1	1.2
Number of adult males in the family	(0.019)	(0.007)	(0.012)	(0.024)
Number of adult females in the family	1.1	1.2	1.1	1.2
Number of adult females in the family	(0.017)	(0.007)	(0.012)	(0.024)
Age of household head (years)	51.3	42.7	47.5	46.4
Age of household head (years)	(0.362)	(0.129)	(0.221)	(0.469)
Number of family members	3.9	3.2	3.2	3.3
Number of family members	(0.046)	(0.016)	(0.027)	(0.058)
Years of schooling of head of household	5.6	9.8	8.2	11.1
Years of schooling of head of household	(0.106)	(0.049)	(0.076)	(0.167)
Price of cereals	3.76	3.84	3.78	3.9
Price of cereals	(0.014)	(0.006)	(0.009)	(0.02)
Price of bean	11.11	11.23	11.08	11.38
Price of bean	(0.033)	(0.015)	(0.023)	(0.053)
Price of oil	4.2	4.16	4.22	4.15
Price of oil	(0.012)	(0.004)	(0.007)	(0.015)
Price of sugar	4.69	4.08	3.9	4.15
Price of sugar	(0.138)	(0.048)	(0.069)	(0.163)
Price of milk	2.43	2.53	2.55	2.52
Price of milk	(0.011)	(0.004)	(0.007)	(0.014)

Dependent Variables:
Natural logarithm of the total income of the head of household in the Agricultural sector. (lnrendt)
Natural logarithm of the total income of the head of household in the Non-agricultural sector. (lnrendt)
Natural logarithm of the total income of the head of household in the Self-employement sector. (lnrendt)
Natural logarithm of the total income of the head of household in the Other Jobs sector. (lnrendt)

Explanatory Variables:
- lnagehead: Natural logarithm of the years of age of the head of the household.
- lnagehead²: Natural logarithm of the squared years of age of the head of the household.
- lnadultm: Natural logarithm of the number of adult males in the family.
- lnadultf: Natural logarithm of the number of adult females in the family.
- tamfam: Natural logarithm of the number of family components.
- anest: Years of average education of the head of the household.
- dsex: Dummy variable for the sex of the head of the household (0 for woman, 1 for man).
- lncalorie: Natural logarithm of the amount of calories per capita consumed by the head of the household.
- lncalorie²: Natural logarithm of the squared amount of calories per capita consumed by the head of the
household.
- lnvitB1: Natural logarithm of the amount of vitamin B1 per capita consumed by the head of the
household.
- lnvitB1²: Natural logarithm of the squared amount of vitamin B1 per capita consumed by the head of the
household.
- lnvitB2: Natural logarithm of the amount of vitamin B2 per capita consumed by the head of the
household.
- lnvitB2²: Natural logarithm of the squared amount of vitamin B2 per capita consumed by the head of the
household.
- lnvitA: Natural logarithm of the amount of vitamin A per capita consumed by the head of the
household.
- lnvitA²: Natural logarithm of the squared amount of vitamin A per capita consumed by the head of the
household.
- lniron: Natural logarithm of the amount of iron per capita consumed by the head of the household.
- lniron²: Natural logarithm of the squared amount of iron per capita consumed by the head of the
household.
- lnpcereals: Natural logarithm of the average price of cereals (rice, oats, maize, wheat, rye, and
derivatives).
- lnpoil: Natural logarithm of the average price of edible oil.
- lnpsugar: Natural logarithm of the average price of sugar.
- lnpbeans: Natural logarithm of the average price of beans.
- lnpmilk: Natural logarithm of the average price of milk.
- averainfall: Average rainfall.
- dlocal: Dummy variable for location (0 if the state is not located on the coast, 1 if it is).

Variable	Agricultural		Non-agricultural			Self-employment		Other Jobs
Variable	dy/dx	P>\|z\|	dy/dx	P>\|z\|		dy/dx	P>\|z\|	dy/dx	P>\|z\|
agehead	-0.016	0.000	0.010	0.000		0.007	0.004	-0.002	0.218
agehead²	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000		0.000	0.849	0.000	0.000
Adultm	-0.014	0.101	0.012	0.099		0.002	0.844	0.000	0.986
Adultf	-0.036	0.000	0.045	0.000		-0.008	0.485	-0.002	0.724
Sizehous	-0.002	0.463	-0.020	0.000		0.016	0.000	0.006	0.000
Dsex*	-0.257	0.000	0.170	0.000		-0.022	0.374	0.108	0.000
Averainfall	0.000	0.425	0.000	0.000		0.000	0.000	0.000	0.756
Dlocal	-0.063	0.000	-0.007	0.444		0.033	0.006	0.037	0.000
Marginal Effects for the Sample of Household Heads in Rural Area of Brazil (2008 - 2009)
Variable	Agricultural		Non-agricultural			Self-employment		Other Jobs
Variable	dy/dx	P>\|z\|	dy/dx		P>\|z\|	dy/dx	P>\|z\|	dy/dx	P>\|z\|
agehead	-0.014	0.001	0.007		0.146	0.006	0.176	0.002	0.273
agehead²	0.0001	0.030	0.000		0.015	0.000	0.767	0.000	0.562
Adultm	0.077	0.000	0.019		0.266	-0.071	0.000	-0.025	0.002
Adultf	-0.032	0.105	0.125		0.000	-0.092	0.000	-0.001	0.918
Sizehous	0.001	0.903	-0.035		0.000	0.033	0.000	0.001	0.812
Dsex*	-0.055	0.103	0.113		0.000	-0.062	0.064	0.005	0.659
Averainfall	0.0000	0.018	0.000		0.010	0.000	0.479	0.000	0.591
Dlocal	-0.025	0.263	0.014		0.517	-0.007	0.776	0.017	0.061
Marginal Effects for the sample of Households Heads in Rural Area of Brazil (2017 -2018)
Variable	Agricultural		Non-agricultural			Self-employment		Other Jobs
Variable	dy/dx	P>\|z\|	dy/dx		P>\|z\|	dy/dx	P>\|z\|	dy/dx	P>\|z\|
agehead	0.000	0.914	0.003		0.569	-0.003	0.322	0.001	0.454
agehead²	0.000	0.015	0.000		0.003	0.000	0.146	0.000	0.711
Adultm	0.043	0.012	-0.040		0.034	-0.006	0.652	0.003	0.409
Adultf	0.054	0.005	-0.040		0.055	-0.014	0.364	0.000	0.919
Sizehous	-0.006	0.461	-0.005		0.515	0.007	0.223	0.004	0.015
Dsex*	-0.154	0.000	0.095		0.000	0.037	0.054	0.022	0.000
Averainfall	0.000	0.000	0.000		0.000	0.000	0.014	0.000	0.013
Dlocal	0.004	0.855	0.080		0.000	-0.087	0.000	0.003	0.567

Sector/Nutrient	Hausman Test	Hausman Test	Hausman Test
Sector/Nutrient	2003-2004 POF	2008-2009 POF	2017-2018 POF
Agricultural / Calories	30.21 (0.0000)	7.50 (0.0000)	6.91 (0.0310)
Non-Agricultural / Calories	1.99 (0.3704)	16.02 (0.0003)	14.42 (0.0007)
Self-employment /Calories	9.45 (0.0089)	1.62 (0.4460)	2.88 (0.2368)
Other Jobs /Calories	2.06 (0.3579)	0.52 (0.7706)	3.33 (0.1894)
Agricultural / Vit. B1	13.02 (0.0015)	1.90 (0.3871)	3.57 (0.1677)
Non-Agricultural / Vit. B1	30.21 (0.0000)	15.01 (0.0006)	10.68 (0.0048)
Self-employment / Vit. B1	3.44 (0.1792)	5.24 (0.0729)	1.05 (0.5930)
Other Jobs / Vit. B1	1.46 (0.4825)	1.12 (0.5715)	1.47 (0.4799)
Agricultural / Vit. B2	55.48 (0.0000)	1.68 (0.4319)	4.59 (0.1009)
Non-Agricultural / Vit. B2	34.48 (0.0000)	11.32 (0.0035)	14.99 (0.0006)
Self-employment / Vit. B2	4.66 (0.0971)	0.29 (0.8660)	5.22 (0.0736)
Other Jobs / Vit. B2	5.61 (0.0604)	0.77 (0.6811)	1.74 (0.4191)
Agricultural / Vit. A	20.16 (0.0000)	0.20 (0.9060)	6.12 (0.0469)
Non-Agricultural / Vit. A	2.14 (0.3436)	4.29 (0.1170)	4.05 (0.1320)
Other Jobs / Vit. A	1.16 (0.5606)	1.22 (0.5436)	1.01 (0.6044)
Agricultural / Iron	8.99 (0.0111)	3.30 (0.1924)	8.28 (0.0159)
Non-Agricultural / Iron	20.02 (0.0000)	9.97 (0.0069)	14.07 (0.0006)
Self-employment / Iron	3.88 (0.1436)	0.91 (0.6341)	1.95 (0.3775)
Other Jobs / Iron	3.90 (0.1436)	6.05 (0.9720)	1.24 (0.5373)

Sector	2002-2003 POF	2008-2009 POF	2017-2018 POF
Agricultural	Cal./Vit.B1, B2, A/Iron	Cal.	Cal./Vit.A/Iron
Non Agricultural	Vit.B1, B2/Iron	Cal./Vit.B1, B2/Iron	Cal./Vit.B1, B2/Iron
Other Jobs	-	-	-

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Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural (SOBER) SRTVN Av. W/3 norte, quadra 702. Ed. Brasília Rádio Center, Sala 1049., CEP: 70719-900, Website: https://sober.org.br/, Telefone: +55 (16) 3509-7900 - Brasília - DF - Brazil
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[1] Source: Data compiled by the authors from the Brazilian household budget survey (POFs) conducted in 2002-2003, 2008-2009, and 2017-2018.