AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN FOOD SECURITY IN EMERGING AND DEVELOPED ECONOMIES

In this paper, we empirically investigate if food security is specific to a space, a level of development or an economic mode, using Panel data. Our study initially exploited a total sample of 52 emerging and developed countries, for the period 1980-2006, then, we subdivided the sample in two subsamples according to the classification of the World Bank and according to the income. In this way, food safety can be defined as the capacity of all people to a sufficient, healthy and nutritive food, the physical and the economic access. Our results indicate that the countries in the process of development are the most vulnerable to food safety (in quantity: undernourishment) because of the increases of the percentage of poverty. But the developed countries suffers also by this problem( in quality: obesity).