Abstract
While many of the world’s poor consume inadequate calories with low nutritional value, there has been little work on how this may shape their behaviors and productivity. Using lab-in-the-field and field experiments in the context of a floriculture plant in Ethiopia, this study investigates the effects of a nutrition support program on behavioral outcomes—stress, prosociality, cooperation, and attention—and productivity. We find that nutrition support relieves stress and decreases prosociality, exhibiting a pattern of hedonic adaptation over time. We do not find evidence for improvements in labor productivity.