Impact of Unemployment on Food Security: Evidence from Sri Lanka

Abstract

Unemployment is becoming one of the main socio-economic problems in Sri Lanka, coupled with the economic recession. Unemployment results in an increase in the poverty rate of the country. Poverty leads to food insecurity. Food security is defined as all people having physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life. Food security will ultimately achieve zero hunger, the second Sustainable Development Goal. The study investigates the impact of Unemployment and Food security in Sri Lanka. The study investigates the impact of Unemployment and Food Security in Sri Lanka using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) using Sri Lanka as the sample country for thirty years from 1991 to 2020. The data was collected on an annual frequency from CBSL. The results show a negative relationship between unemployment and food in Sri Lanka. The study concludes that when unemployment is higher, food security is lower. Level of education and macroeconomic economic factors are the mechanisms through which unemployment reduces food security. Lack of education reduces chances for employment. Further, low-quality jobs and macroeconomic conditions will reduce food security. Thus, policymakers need to increase education and job opportunities, ultimately increasing food security.