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Does the Poor’s Consumption of Calories Respond to Changes in Income? Evidence from Pakistan

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  • Franque Grimard

    (McGill University, Montréal, Canada.)

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between income and calorie consumption for households in developing countries. Recent papers have questioned the strength of this relationship on the basis of several measurement problems that tend to overstate the responsiveness of calories consumption to income. The paper uses a household data set from Pakistan and estimates calories income elasticities for rural and urban households. The estimation takes into account the concerns raised by Behrman and Deolalikar (1987) and Bouis and Haddad (1992) about quality effects and unobservable variables. The paper finds that the elasticity is significantly different from zero. Furthermore, the relationship appears to be different according to households’ incomes. Poor households’ responsiveness of calories intake to changes in income is greater than that of the entire sample. These results are consistent with the conventional wisdom that existed before the recent criticisms.

Suggested Citation

  • Franque Grimard, 1996. "Does the Poor’s Consumption of Calories Respond to Changes in Income? Evidence from Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 35(3), pages 257-283.
    • Handle: RePEc:pid:journl:v:35:y:1996:i:3:p:257-283
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    File URL: http://www.pide.org.pk/pdf/PDR/1996/Volume3/257-283.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Pitt, Mark M, 1983. "Food Preferences and Nutrition in Rural Bangladesh," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(1), pages 105-114, February.
    2. Subramanian, Shankar & Deaton, Angus, 1996. "The Demand for Food and Calories," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(1), pages 133-162, February.
    3. Deaton, Angus, 1988. "Quality, Quantity, and Spatial Variation of Price," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(3), pages 418-430, June.
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    5. Strauss, John, 1986. "Does Better Nutrition Raise Farm Productivity?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(2), pages 297-320, April.
    6. Bouis, Howarth E. & Haddad, Lawrence J., 1992. "Are estimates of calorie-income fxelasticities too high? : A recalibration of the plausible range," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 333-364, October.
    7. Behrman, Jere R & Deolalikar, Anil B, 1987. "Will Developing Country Nutrition Improve with Income? A Case Study for Rural South India," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(3), pages 492-507, June.
    8. Behrman, Jere R & Deolalikar, Anil B & Wolfe, Barbara L, 1988. "Nutrients: Impacts and Determinants," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 2(3), pages 299-320, September.
    9. Behrman, Jere R. & Wolfe, Barbara L., 1984. "More evidence on nutrition demand : Income seems overrated and women's schooling underemphasized," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 105-128.
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    Cited by:

    1. Aromolaran, Adebayo B., 2004. "Household income, women's income share and food calorie intake in South Western Nigeria," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 507-530, October.
    2. San Ahmed, Arsalan & Holloway, Garth John, 2017. "Calories, conflict and correlates: Redistributive food security in post-conflict Iraq," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 89-99.
    3. Del Ninno, Carlo & Dorosh, Paul A. & Smith, Lisa C., 2003. "Public Policy, Markets and Household Coping Strategies in Bangladesh: Avoiding a Food Security Crisis Following the 1998 Floods," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 1221-1238, July.
    4. del Ninno, Carlo & Dorosh, Paul A. & Smith, Lisa C., 2003. "Public policy, food markets, and household coping strategies in Bangladesh," FCND discussion papers 156, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Nkegbe, Paul Kwame & Abu, Benjamin Musah & Haruna, Issahaku, 2016. "Food security in the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority Zone of Ghana: an ordered probit with household hunger scale approach," MPRA Paper 101605, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 07 Feb 2017.
    6. Faiz Ur Rehman & Muhammad Nasir, 2018. "In the Same Boat, but not Equals: The Heterogeneous Effects of Indirect Taxation on Child Health in Punjab-Pakistan," PIDE-Working Papers 2018:158, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    7. Rehman Faiz Ur & Nasir Muhammad, 2020. "In the Same Boat, but not Equals: The Heterogeneous Effects of Indirect Taxation on Child Health in Punjab-Pakistan," Asian Journal of Law and Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 11(3), pages 1-26, December.
    8. Biswabhusan Bhuyan & Bimal Kishore Sahoo & Damodar Suar, 2020. "Quantile Regression Analysis of Predictors of Calorie Demand in India: An Implication for Sustainable Development Goals," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 18(4), pages 825-859, December.
    9. Salois, Matthew & Tiffin, Richard & Balcombe, Kelvin, 2010. "Calorie and Nutrient Consumption as a Function of Income: A Cross-Country Analysis," MPRA Paper 24726, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. S. M. Naseem, 2012. "A Review Of Studies On Poverty In Pakistan: Origin, Evolution, Thematic Content And Future Directions," PIDE Books, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, number 2012:1 edited by Rashid Amjad, December.
    11. Santeramo, Fabio Gaetano & Shabnam, Nadia, 2015. "The income-elasticity of calories, macro and micro nutrients: What is the literature telling us?," MPRA Paper 63754, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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