Are there other winners? The effects of economic growth on farm animals / Working Paper

Abstract

Nowadays, more citizens and governments care about Non-Human Animals’ (NHA) welfare. Economic growth is considered by some an important determinant of NHA’s welfare, however, there are no many studies exploring this relationship. By using the Animal Welfare Kuznet’s Curve (AWKC), where after a specific threshold, the animal suffering (animal welfare) will decrease (increase), we aim to explore how income affects the situations of animals. Although some studies show evidence of the existence of AWKC, these have mainly focus on animals used for productions and not on those kept alive to produce products such eggs or milk, whose welfare is more likely to deteriorate over time. The present study tests the existence of an AWKC for farm animals, as well as the possible impacts on the environment caused by farming practices, in 24 countries (14 developed, 10 developing) using consumption and production indicators for 38 years (1970 to 2018) obtained from the FAO and the World Bank. By using cubic specification model, we find no evidence of an AWKC in any country or group, not even for those use for derivate products, where efficiency has increase over the years. This shows that economic growth does not relates to an animal welfare, meaning that current industrial production and consumption partners need to change drastically if the negative effects to NHA want to be mitigated in the future. treatments.