THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONSUMPTION AND WORKER PRODUCTIVITY - NUTRITION AND ECONOMIC APPROACHES

That better fed, healthier individuals work harder may seem intuitively appealing but there is surprisingly little rigorous evidence to support the hypothesis. There are numerous problems in establishing a causal link between production and consumption due to difficulties in measuring the productivity of workers, misinterpretation of simple correlations between production and consumption, and jointly determined production and consumption variables. The extent to which research findings can be generalized to larger populations often is jeopardized by sample attrition and sample selection. It is the purpose of this article to explain how these empirical and experimental difficulties arise, their implications for research results, how they may be overcome, and to access what is known about the consumption-production relationship. The field of nutrition contributes understanding of the biological relationship between energy intake and energy expenditure, necessary measurement skills, and clinical evidence supporting the consumption-production hypothesis. Economists contribute understanding of the larger social context in which the biological relationship takes place and empirical techniques necessary to overcome measurement and data problems.