Does Consuming More Calories Make You Earn More? Nutrition-Productivity Link Revisited in India

Using nationally representative data from India, this study estimates the effect of calorie intake on wages. In order to take into account the heterogeneity and endogeneity in the effect of calorie intake on wages, we apply two stage least square and instrumental variable quantile regression methods. We find that higher calorie consumption positively affects wages of workers. A 10% increase in per capita calorie intake per day leads to 2.4% increase in daily wages for workers. The wage effect varies by occupation type and distribution of wages; the marginal effect of calorie intake on wage is higher at the lower quantiles of wage distribution and for non-elementary workers. Our findings support an urgent need of public nutritional supplementation at low and median level of the wage distribution for the maximization of wage gain from the public nutritional expenditure