Food security and public agricultural spending in Bolivia: Putting money where your mouth is?

This paper explores the reduction of food insecurity in Bolivia, adopting a supply-side approach that analyzes the role of agricultural spending on vulnerability to food insecurity. Vulnerability to food insecurity is captured by a municipal-level composite indicator for all 327 municipalities in 2003, 2006, and 2007. Econometric analysis indicates that levels of public agricultural spending are positively associated with high or very high vulnerability—especially investments in infrastructure and research and extension. The authors interpret this to indicate that agricultural spending allocation is driven by high or very high vulnerability levels, but has small effects on reducing high vulnerability.