Urban segregation and food consumption

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of China’s urban segregation caused byhukourestrictions on food consumption. Design/methodology/approach - Based on the 2007–2009 Urban Household Survey data from six China provinces conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the authors adopt a propensity score matching (PSM) method to correct for potential selection bias. A Rosenbaum bounds test is applied to evaluate the sensitivity of the PSM results to unobserved variables. Findings - The results show that holding ruralhukou(RHs) reduces the consumption of livestock products and vegetables and fruit by 8.8 and 4.8 percent, respectively. The status ofhukoudoes not affect the consumption of grain and edible oil.Hukouimpacts on food consumption are heterogeneous across income levels, with low-income and middle-income households more vulnerable to urban segregation andhukoudiscriminations. A stronger motivation for precautionary saving and higher welfare expenditures that not compensated by social security lead to the lower food consumption by migrant households with RHs. Originality/value - This paper advances the research frontier by investigating the impacts ofhukousystem on the structure of food consumption, which accurately reflects the household welfare.