![]() ![]() Once the role of effective demand for food is brought to the foreground, one can take the initial steps away from the view that macroeconomics and famine are unrelated subjects of inquiry. In terms of the familiar diagrammatics of microeconomics, a famine is associated with an increase in the relative price of food-not necessarily due to a decline in food supply-which leaves the minimum food basket outside the reach of some consumers’ “budget line.” ![]() Second, Sen argues that what did decline for a large section of the population was food entitlement, the purchasing power of income and wealth over food. First, there is the empirical observation that per capita food availability did not decline during five major famines in the 20th century. There are two essential ingredients to his argument. Sen’s (1981) book Poverty and Famines has done much to challenge this view. However, until very recently, economics did not have much to offer beyond the man on the street explanation that famines occur “because there isn’t enough food to go around.” To be sure, a number of economists did progress beyond the simple drought and locusts view of famines-for example, to the analysis of faulty agricultural pricing policies-but the focus remained on factors that reduce the physical supply of food.Ī.K. ![]() Of all human tragedies, famine is surely the one that falls most obviously in the domain of economics. ![]()
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