Development of Productive Forces and Relative Social Underdevelopment Under Market Socialism: Progress in Reducing Child Malnutrition and Mortality in China and Vietnam in a Comparative Perspective
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This paper proposes a schematic interpretation of the main economic and social determinants of child malnutrition and mortality in developing countries, and applies it to analyze the cases of China and Vietnam. We present a quantitative analysis showing that the prevalence of child malnutrition and mortality in developing countries in the early 2000s, and their evolution since the early 1990s, was attributable both to income-related and non income-related factors. The latter are largely dependent on public expenditure on basic social services, such as health, immunization, education, and sanitary infrastructure. As the initial degree of inequality was very low, rapid growth in China and Vietnam has allowed for a historically unprecedented degree of poverty reduction, reducing income-based causes of malnutrition. Yet, underinvestment in basic public services led to a suboptimal evolution of non-income factors affecting malnutrition, thereby partially undermining the positive evolution of income-based factors. To fully realize the potential of market socialism in terms of human development, China and Vietnam should enact substantial policy changes aimed at combating social inequalities and prioritizing public social expenditure
RPRT
Gabriele, Alberto
Schettino, Francesco
2006
1-24
Rome
1193