Preface to 'Econometrics, Statistics and Computational Approaches in Food and Health Sciences'

This book is a compendium of Alok Bhargava's most important contributions in longitudinal econometric methods and its application to problems of food, nutrition and health. It demonstrates the usefulness of rigorous econometric and statistical methods in addressing issues of under-nutrition and poor child health in developing countries, as well as obesity in developed countries. The close connection between the issues and themes analyzed in disciplines such as economics, nutrition, psychology, demography, epidemiology and public health, provides a sound basis for the formulation of public policies. “These essays by Alok Bhargava demonstrate the power of modern microeconometrics in addressing basic social problems. They also illustrate the value of grounding serious research in economics in the biology and science producing the phenomenon being studied. Bhargava has developed a powerful synthesis of economics and the biology of human nutrition. This is a collection of papers that richly repays a close read.” James Heckman Nobel Laureate in Economics University of Chicago