Imports and nutritional quality of foods in the Caribbean. Evidence from the French West Indies
Résumé
This paper investigates the determinants of the nutritional quality of food imports in the French West Indies (Guadeloupe and Martinique), from 1995 to 2016. We use an original dataset reconciling data at the six-digit level of the Harmonized System with data from the French food composition table (Ciqual 2017). We estimate the impact of several socioeconomic factors on per-capita imports of key markers of the nutrition transition: animal protein, saturated fat, sugar and ber. Results show a positive association between per-capita GDP, retail expansion, urbanization and nutrition outcomes. No robust evidence is found to link the female labor force participation rate and nutrition outcomes. Regional trade agreements are shown to have a positive and signicant impact only on per-capita imports of sugar.