Climatic shocks and food security in developing countries

This paper contributes to the existing literature on climatic variability and food security. It analyzes the effect of climatic shocks on food security for 77 developing countries from 1960 to 2008. Using two complementary indicators of food security (food supply, proportion of undernourished people), we find that climatic shocks reduce food supply in developing countries. The adverse effect is higher for African Sub Saharan countries than other developing countries. Second, food supply is a channel by which climatic shocks increase the proportion of undernourished people. Third, the negative effects of climatic shocks are exacerbated in presence of civil conflicts and are high for countries that are vulnerable to food prices shocks.