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Long-Term Impacts of Emergency Food Aid: The Case of the 1984 Ethiopian Famine

Professor Salvatore Di Falco and Kyungbo Han, a 2023 Ph.D. graduate in Economics from the GSEM, co-authored a study exploring the long-term impact of emergency food aid on health and productivity, using the 1984 Ethiopian famine as a case study.

Published in the Journal of Development Economics, the research investigates how proximity to food relief camps during the famine improved health outcomes and labor productivity in adulthood. Using geospatial data, the authors compare individuals born near relief camps to those born farther away, finding that those born closer to aid camps were taller as adults and exhibited higher labor productivity in agriculture.

The study highlights the importance of emergency aid not only as an immediate crisis response but also as a long-term investment in human capital. It suggests that localized interventions during climate shocks can provide lasting benefits, improving health and economic outcomes in affected populations. The authors argue that emergency aid should be seen as a tool for building resilience and mitigating the long-term impacts of disasters, emphasizing the need for timely and accessible interventions to maximize benefits.

Salvatore Di Falco received funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation.

ABSTRACT

We examine the long-term mitigating impact of emergency food aid on health status using the food aid response to the Ethiopian famine in 1984 as a case study. Employing novel geospatial data on the location of relief camps where emergency food was distributed, we estimate the effect of proximity to a camp on height in adulthood. We compare different birth timings (born before or during versus after the relief operation) and different villages of birth (born close to versus far from a camp), exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in accessibility to emergency aid. Access to relief operation in early childhood leads to higher stature in adulthood. Aid beneficiaries also display higher later-life labor productivity in the agricultural sector, which suggests that the long-term health consequence of emergency aid may have translated into gains in agricultural productivity.

The study is available here:

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