Investigating the Effects of International Trade on Food Security (Case Study: A Selection of Countries with Middle-High-income)

Hunger, food insecurity and poverty is the most important critical issues in some countries. Of all the rights given to a community's basic household needs, "food security" is one of the most important individual needs that governments are responsible for providing. International trade can reduce food insecurity in countries by facilitating access to larger markets, Hence, food trade could be regarded as the solution to world food security. Thus for global food security, food trade is vital. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between international trade and food security in the group of high-middle income countries including Iran during the period of 2002–2016 using a random-effects panel econometric approach. The results show that there is a U-shaped relationship between the two variables of food security and international trade. It indicates that food security declines in the early stages of trade development and increases beyond a certain threshold. Based on the findings of the study, suggestions have been made to improve the relationship between food security and international trade that need to be considered by policy makers.