Abstract
One of the preconditions for participation in urban development, or any economic development, may well be a proper diet. Yet little is understood about the demand function for nutrition—particularly that of minorities. This study uses regression analysis applied to field research data in an effort to yield insight into the demand for nutrition of urban deprived single Mexican-American youth ages 14 to 21 years old. The regression equation includes both economic and noneconomic dependent variables. The results indicate that there exists a synergistic relationship between economic and noneconomic variables influencing the demand for nutrition. The facts that the economic variable income had no relationship to diet led the writer to conclude there are two types of poverty, internalized and external, and that the preponderance of the literature contains data and reasoning taken from the external group where there apparently is a relationship between income and diet. Internalized poverty means a psychological inability to provide for the future, i.e., incapable of engaging in activities that are spaced over time. External poverty means a temporary situational poverty directly connected to the prevaling economic conditions.
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Walter, J.P. Nutrition and human capital formation: The Urban deprived Mexican American youth. Ann Reg Sci 9, 91–102 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01287428
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01287428