The Ultimate Giffen Good: Rice?

From the Freakonomics Blog:

[S]ubsidies enjoy significant political and popular support because it is believed they at least protect the nutrition of the poor. This is especially the case when comparing subsidies to other forms of welfare, like cash payments, since people worry that the poor may spend the cash on things other than food, or at least may not use the money in a way that improves their nutrition...

...In fact, in Hunan nutrition actually declined in response to the subsidy. In Gansu, the effect on nutrition was essentially zero. And our sample included only the very poorest households, malnourished by international standards and earning much less than a dollar per person per day — i.e. the exact group whose nutrition subsidies are intended to improve.

Think about that when those fighting for the Panderer in Chief tell us we need to subsidize goods to "protect the poor."

Comments

[Arbitrageur]

I see Carney's brought back a highly contagious rice virus from Asia... I hope LoS doesn't do a Rice-Baller story next.

[1-2]

Well played, Arb, well played.

Although rice ballers would be pretty sick...