Hunger: Beyond the Reach of the Invisible Hand

The work described in this report differs from many others in that the analysis of policies is based on a common integrated framework. It shows why hunger persists, why many policies advanced in popular literature do not work, and what kind of policies can work. Although based on analyses using a quantitative, sophisticated system of models, the book is addressed to the nontechnical layman and to the general reader. The arguments go beyond economic and technical analysis and deal with political and moral aspects. The authors show that solutions that rely only on the market mechanism do not work to eliminate hunger rapidly enough. This analysis shows that even policies that try to intervene, modify, and distort the market do not help to reduce hunger effectively if they rely on the market mechanism.