July 29, 2026
We're proud to show SCARP PhD student Khadija Anjum's paper she published with the Oxford Development Studies on social capital's comprehensive effect on diet quality.
As is often the case with Anjum's research, the paper provides a crucial lens on how gender further affects this phenomenon.
Do some forms of social capital matter more for diet quality?
Propensity score matching evidence from intra-household data in Pakistan
By authors:
SCARP PhD Khadija Anjum (PI)
Professor James Vercammen, jointly appointed by UBC Sauder School of Business and UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems
SCARP Professor Nora Angeles
When food prices rise and formal safety nets are limited, low-income families often turn to relatives, friends, neighbours, employers, and other social connections for help. Khadija and her team's research examined whether the type of support people receive through these relationships matters for what they are able to eat.
They found that larger amounts of support received as gifts, food, or other non-repayable assistance were associated with better diet quality. Support from both close relationships, such as family and neighbours, and more socially distant or influential relationships, such as employers or wealthier contacts, also mattered. In contrast, receiving larger informal loans was not associated with better diet quality.
What these findings may mean
The findings suggest that social relationships can provide an important informal safety net during periods of rapidly rising food prices—but not all forms of support are equally protective. Assistance that does not create a repayment burden may be more useful for helping vulnerable families maintain a diverse diet than informal credit, which may be used for other urgent expenses or may add to existing financial pressures.
The results also reveal an important gender dimension. Although social support was associated with better diet quality for both men and women, men were generally more likely to access larger amounts of support and appeared to benefit more from some forms of it. This highlights why food-security policies should look inside the household rather than assuming that assistance received by a household benefits every member equally.
The wider implication is that informal networks can help people survive periods of economic stress, but they cannot replace strong public food assistance, social protection, and livelihood policies. Support available through personal relationships is often unequal, uncertain, and shaped by gender and social position.
As Anjum puts it:
During periods of rapidly rising food prices, people’s relationships can become an essential source of food, money, and practical support. But our findings show that it is not simply whether someone has social connections that matters—it is the kind of resources those connections provide, and whether women and men are equally able to access and benefit from them.
The informal nature of social capital as a means to access future needs has inevitable equity and accessibility implications. As Anjum concludes:
Social connections can help protect diet quality during a food-price crisis, but access to that protection is unequal. Informal networks matter, yet they cannot substitute for reliable and inclusive public safety nets.
About the authors
Primary Investigator:
Khadija Anjum
Khadija’s research investigates spatial inequities in social network coping strategies and welfare outcomes amid food inflationary stresses, within the specific sub-section of farm and off-farm casual wage laborers. She investigates gendered and spatial heterogeneities in outcomes, with attention to individuals’ labor market participation, incomes, and other socio-demographic characteristics.
Co-PIs:
James Vercammen
James conducts research in commodity prices and environmental policy. Of particular interest is the link between energy prices and food prices. James also examines how Canada’s federal carbon tax impacts the price of agricultural commodities. More recently, James has been using machine learning models to analyze commodity prices in various agri-energy applications.
Nora Angeles
Nora's continuing research and interests are on community and international development studies and social policy, participatory planning and governance, participatory action research, and the politics of transnational feminist networks, women’s movements and agrarian issues, particularly in the Southeast Asian region.
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