Séminaire Nancy – Anne-Celia Disdier (INRAE)

Détails de l'événement :

“International diffusion of food innovations and nutrition transition” with Fabrice Etilé (PSE-INRAE) and Lorenzo Rotunno (AMSE)

Abstract: This study tests whether the international diffusion of food innovations over time is associated to changes in the nutritional quality of country-level food supply. We combine food patent and food trade data to construct a measure of innovation that combine domestic patents with those imported through trade of processed food. After adjusting for confounding observed and unobserved trends in demand-side factors, we find that the diffusion of food innovations was positively and significantly associated with an increase in calorie supply in middle-Income countries, and the supply share of animal and free fats both in middle- and high-income countries. Food innovations were associated with large substitution towards sugars at the expense of complex carbohydrates, in middle-income countries after 1990. For these countries, the trade channel capturing the access to innovations through imports of processed food played a key role in the nutrition transition patterns.