Economic and Business Impacts of School Meal Programmes: A Cross-Country Meta-Aggregation

Abstract

School meal programmes are increasingly framed as economic instruments, yet the evidence on their impacts is geographically fragmented and metrically incommensurable, which impedes cross-country comparison. This study identifies the characteristics of that literature and constructs the architecture of categories, synthesised findings, and transmission pathways through which the impacts arise. A Boolean search of Scopus retrieved 3,064 records, screened under PRISMA 2020 to 50 studies published between 2016 and 2026, of which 41 contributed findings to an adapted meta-aggregative synthesis graded through ConQual. Aggregation resolved the evidence into 25 categories and seven synthesised findings across three pathways: procurement and household carry two findings each, human capital one, and two are cross-pathway. Confidence proves systematically uneven along the demand-supply division. Only maternal labour supply and bargaining position attains a High grade; budget substitution and long-run human capital returns attain Moderate; multipliers, family farm integration, and governance attain Low; and fiscal incidence, resting on two categories, Very Low. The justification most invoked for expanding local procurement therefore rests on the weakest evidence in the corpus.