We analyze Engel curves for nuclear households in rural China. The sample includes more than 5000 nuclear families covering nineteen out of thirty Chinese provinces. We consider expenditures on food, also subdivided into several food subcategories such as cereals, or meat and fish, and other consumption categories such as alcohol and tobacco, medical, and educational goods. We use the semiparametric partially linear model. This allows for any functional form relationship between the budget shares and total expenditures, but assumes that the demographic variables enter the model in a linear way. We correct for potential endogeneity of total expenditures. Our results suggest that there are economies of scale in families ’consumption expenditure patterns. We find some differences in consumption patterns which relate to differences in gender of children, which can be seen as evidence of sexual bias related to a commonly believed existing preference for boys.
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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number
212.
Find related papers by JEL classification: C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods C20 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - General D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination R20 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - Household Analysis - - - General
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