Assessing food insecurity in Brazil: the issue of the non-symmetric effects

Abstract The main objective of this article is to study how a set of socioeconomics characteristics impacts the probability of occurrence of different levels of the food insecurity in Brazil. This is performed taking into consideration the informational complexity of the Brazilian Scale of Food Insecurity (EBIA). Our hypothesis, which are tested through a generalized ordered logistic model, is that the explanatory variables offer asymmetric effects regarding the different categories of food insecurity measured by the EBIA. The results confirm that hypothesis, pointing out that it is important to consider the complexity involved in the food insecurity phenomenon to discuss public policy.

摘要：本研究的核心目标为探讨一系列社会经济特征如何影响巴西境内不同等级粮食不安全（food insecurity）的发生概率。本次研究充分考量巴西粮食不安全量表（EBIA）的信息复杂性，并基于此开展相关分析。本文提出研究假设：解释变量对EBIA测度的不同类别粮食不安全具有非对称影响，并通过广义有序logistic模型（generalized ordered logistic model）对该假设进行检验。研究结果验证了上述假设，同时指出在探讨粮食不安全相关公共政策时，充分考量该现象的内在复杂性具有重要意义。