Micronutrient malnutrition is a serious public health problem especially in developing
countries. Hence evaluating the nutritional impacts of market and policy changes requires more
than just a calorie focus. This work extends the traditional perspective and analyzes the
effects of income food price and sociodemographic developments on vitamin and mineral
adequacies at the household level. The author proposes two approaches to estimate income and
price elasticities of nutrient consumption and presents a procedure for assessing the nutrition
situation in populations based on food consumption data. Using both approaches demand models
are applied in two empirical studies with data from rural East Africa and Malawi. Results
suggest that the nutritional status is highly income-responsive. Price elasticities are lower
in absolute values albeit with notable differences between nutrients. Policy implications are
discussed.
