Food insecurity and social protection in Europe: Quasi-natural experiment of Europe's great recessions 2004-2012.

ABSTRACT: Food insecurity rose sharply in Europe after 2009, but marked variation exists across countries and over time. We test whether social protection programs protected people from food insecurity arising from economic hardship across Europe. Data on household food insecurity covering 21 EU countries from 2004 to 2012 were taken from Eurostat 2015 edition and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Cross-national first difference models were used to evaluate how rising unemployment and declining wages related to changes in the prevalence of food insecurity and the role of social protection expenditure in modifying observed effects. Economic hardship was strongly associated with greater food insecurity. Each 1 percentage point rise in unemployment rates was associated with an

SUBMITTER: Loopstra R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4976834 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature