Food Quality, Calories, and Household Income

• Tác giả: Vincenzo Di Maro
• Ngôn ngữ: eng
• Ký hiệu phân loại: 339.48 Consumption of specific products and services, of specific groups of products and services
• Thông tin xuất bản: Taylor and Francis, 2013
• Bộ sưu tập: Tài liệu truy cập mở
• ID: 293864
• Chủ đề: 1. calorie-income elasticity; 2. food consumption; 3. food quality; 4. price of calories

Tóm tắt

We investigate the relationship between calories, food quality and household per capita expenditure using regression and semiparametric methods on a sample of poor households from rural Mexico, where Programa de Apoyo Alimentario (PAL), a targeted nutritional programme, is operating. The semiparametric method yields an estimate of the elasticity between calories and expenditure of 0.39 below the median and 0.28 above. The corresponding estimates of the elasticity of the calorie price are 0.48 below the median and 0.45 above. We also examine the extent to which the expenditure elasticity of the calorie price is explained by substitution between and within major food groups. We find that there is a very high incidence of substitution within cereals (especially for poor households) and that between group substitution explains at most 59% of the income elasticity for food quality. These estimates suggest that the potential of a cash transfer programme to have a positive impact on the food diversity and the nutritional status of households is quite limited.