Lec 2, Pt2: Theories of Famines Flashcards
Famine deaths of then versus now
Then
- 1920s-‘60s: 30-50M
- ’70s-‘00s: 1-3M
Now
- 100,000’s
Famine normality globally then versus now
Then: in large famines in both Europe and Asia
Now: almost exclusively an African phenomenon
NB: North American famines related to conquest of the West (late 1800s) are under measured
- Americans killed off major sources plains Indian’s food and took their land
Causes of famines
Agricultural production
Gov intervention/Politics
Income availability
Food availability
Food markets
Migration
Trade in food
Work availability
War, civil
Market effects: Bangladesh 1974/75
- Flooding destroys rice crop
- Price of rice increase
- Famine happens ‘74/’75
- Landless laborers hit hardest by price spikes
- Farmers mostly uneffected
Who is most affected by famines?
Small-scale farmers/tenants/renters whose crops fail
Landless agricultural workers who lose their jobs
Other rural people from beggars to shop keepers
Pastoralists (livestock herders, usually transhumant) who lose animals, animal prices
collapse (everyone is selling their herd), relative or real price of grain goes up
Q: Are urban people ever affected by famines? What would hurt them?
People who cannot migrate or leave an area with famine conditions
What usually kills people in famines?
DDG, Cholera, fever, respiration, starvation/Scurvy, Other…
Theories of Famines
- We used to think: no food = famine
- NOW we think:
- Access to food (not availability) is KEY
- Famines can happen in times where there IS food available
- Markets, trade, prices
- Income levels, ability to earn - New theories
- Amartya Sen’s (Nobel prize winning) entitlement/capabilities theories
- Martin Ravallion’s review of the literature on what stops famines
Amartya Sen’s: Capabilities, Entitlement/Framework
A framework for understanding the resources that a person/household can control to create their own livelihood.
Own-Labor Entitlement
Production Entitlement
Trade-based Entitlement
Transfer or Inheritance Entitlement
Failures of these entitlements are what leads to famines. Identifying the failure helps policy makers choose how to intervene
Own-Labor entitlement
You have the right to the product of your own labor
Production Entitlement
You have the right to own what you produce from your own resources/resources hired in trade from willing parties
Trade-Based Entitlement
You have the right to own what you obtain by trading something you own to a willing party
Transfer or Inheritance Entitlement
You are entitled to own what is willingly given to you by another who legitimately owns it.
Pure Transfer: Money
Food Transfer
Time dependent transfers
- Credit
- Savings
- Reciprocal obligations
Capabilities/Entitlement as a Framework
Explains famines in times of plenty. Moves us away from just counting people and food
Identifies the type of “failure” that needs to be remedied
Points to the types of interventions needed
Labor Entitlement versus Production Entitlement
Labor
- Things you get w/ your own labor effort (e.g., working a job, working on a farm)
- When do you not have a labor entitlement? -> Job loss, wage theft, injury or disability, inability to work due to regulations, inability to do your own labor when you must work for others
Production entitlement:
- Things you can do by combining labor (yours and others) and other inputs (land, capital, machines, etc.)
- When do you not have a production entitlement?
- Agriculture: drought or other crop failure, dispossession of land or other productive assets (livestock), theft of production
- Industry/urban areas: theft of production, dispossession of means of production
What Entitlements are involved with Holodomor (Ukrainian Famine)?
Soviet Union: controlled Ukraine sought to collectivize agricultural and provide adequate/cheap food for urban areas
- Gov in charge of “procurement” of grain: seized food stocks
- Collectivization confiscated the means of production from individual farmers (ex. land and machinery)
- Collectivization forced workers to work for the collectives
- Ukrainians resisted more than other parts of the USSR, some evidence USSR was harsher on Ukrainians than other people/regions
- Because of USSR policy no free for markets existed
- Evidence that crop productio was the same or higher in 1931,’32
Martin Ravallion’s Review of what works to combat famines
- Better Gov, democratization, information: keep gov from ignoring famines
- Early Warning (rapid response to crises): Famine early Warning System
- Increase food availability
- Varied distribution policies dec on food availability an workings of markets
- Stabilization policies such as gov’t or private storage: reduces volatility, provides distributional possibilities
- Other policies: Econ development, credit markets, better infrastructure, clearer property rights
Famine Early Warning System Funded by USAID
Successful so far
Also formed lots of very important prediction tools
2025: cAncelled by Trump administration <- part of defining all of USAID
