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Affluence and Food: A Simple Way to Infer Incomes

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  • Kenneth W. Clements
  • Dongling Chen

Abstract

Accurate and timely measures of cross-country real incomes are still a rarity. As the share of expenditure devoted to food is readily available, we use Engel's law in reciprocal form to measure affluence. Analysis of real income data for over 100 countries indicates that this approach is viable. To recognize the role of uncertainty in the analysis, we present the results in the form of stochastic cross-country income comparisons. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.

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  • Kenneth W. Clements & Dongling Chen, 2010. "Affluence and Food: A Simple Way to Infer Incomes," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 92(4), pages 909-926.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ajagec:v:92:y:2010:i:4:p:909-926
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    Cited by:

    1. Seale, James L. & Solano, Alexis A., 2012. "The changing demand for energy in rich and poor countries over 25years," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1834-1844.
    2. Verma, Monika & Hertel, Thomas W. & Preckel, Paul V., 2011. "Predicting within country household food expenditure variation using international cross-section estimates," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 113(3), pages 218-220.
    3. Fahd Rehman, 2020. "Optimism and pessimism: A cross‐country comparison," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(11), pages 3025-3038, November.
    4. Castaneda Aguilar,Raul Andres & Gasparini,Leonardo Carlos & Garriga,Santiago & Lucchetti,Leonardo Ramiro & Valderrama Gonzalez,Daniel, 2016. "Measuring poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean : methodological considerations when estimating an empirical regional poverty line," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7621, The World Bank.
    5. Clements, Kenneth W. & Gao, Grace, 2012. "Quality, quantity, spending and prices," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(7), pages 1376-1391.
    6. Kenneth W Clements & Grace Gao & Thomas Simpson, 2012. "Disparities in Incomes and Prices Internationally," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 12-01, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    7. Fahd Rehman & Russel J. Cooper, 2023. "Effective GDP: A Cross‐Country Comparison," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 619-652, March.
    8. Haiyan Liu, 2016. "The Income And Price Sensitivity Of Diets Globally," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 16-22, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    9. Fahd Rehman & Russel J. Cooper, 2017. "Consumer Expectations: A Residual Based Approach," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(4), pages 841-866, December.
    10. Erling Røed Larsen, 2014. "Is the Engel curve approach viable in the estimation of alternative PPPs?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 881-904, November.
    11. Kenneth W Clements & Yihui Lan & Haiyan Liu & Long Vo, 2022. "The Icp, Ppp And Household Expenditure Patterns," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 22-18, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.

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