Calories, conflict and correlates: Redistributive food security in post-conflict Iraq

•Iraqi calorie consumption is 3.7 percent below the minimum recommended.•Food-securing policy involves removal of the Public Distribution System.•Means-tested income redistribution is welfare increasing.•Blanket income redistribution is likely welfare increasing.

War-torn Iraq manifests itself as an ideal laboratory for food-policy experimentation due to availability of unique data surrounding intra-household calorie consumption and the presence of selected correlates including, but not restricted to, substantial disruptions to social infrastructure and fundamental public-policy intervention. Among other findings, expenditure elasticities are mostly positive and dramatically curvilinear with respect to wealth; and lump-sum redistribution of The Iraqi Public Distribution System emerges as a feasible policy intervention. Extensions are discussed.