Georgina Pizzolitto (Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS) - Universidad Nacional de La Plata)
Abstract
El presente trabajo analiza el gasto en alimentos que realizan los hogares en Argentina mediante la estimación de curvas de Engel, teniendo en cuenta tanto características demográficas de los hogares como la presencia de heterogeneidad en sus preferencias de consumo. La estimación de distintas formas funcionales para la curva de Engel, realizadas mediante técnicas econométricas paramétricas y semi-paramétricas, sugiere que tanto las especificaciones no lineales, como las formas flexibles de Fourier presentan un mejor ajuste de los datos. Mediante regresiones por cuantiles, se comprueba la existencia de heterogeneidad no observable en el consumo de alimentos a la vez que se confirma la importancia de características demográficas del hogar en el nivel y los patrones de consumo que éstos realizan. This paper examines food consumption in Argentinean households through the estimation of food Engel curves. It also considers households demographic characteristics and heterogeneity in consumption preferences. The estimation of different functional forms for the Engel curves, using parametric and semiparametric techniques, suggests that both, non linear and Fourier flexible functional form are the best approximations to work with and adequate represent the data. Quantile regression confirms that the relation between the share of budget spend on food and the logarithm of household expenditure per head differs at different points in the conditional distribution. Household demographic characteristics are also important in determining the share of the household budget devoted to food and the consumption patterns.
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata in its series Working Papers with number
0045.
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