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The Demand for Food Grain in China: New Insights into a Controversy

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  • Zhang, Xiaobo
  • Mount, Timothy D.
  • Boisvert, Richard N.

Abstract

There is a substantial controversy in the economics literature over the magnitude of the expenditure elasticity for food grain in China that is caused, to a large extent, by whether time-series or cross-section data are used in the analysis. A set of reasonable elasticities for a complete demand system is estimated by using a panel of county level data in Guangdong Province for the last ten years. The results show that food grain has a small positive income elasticity, implying that food grain is not an inferior good in China. The reason that consumption per capita has not increased during a period of rapid economic growth in income is that the relative prices of the food and non-food substitutes for food grain have decreased.

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  • Zhang, Xiaobo & Mount, Timothy D. & Boisvert, Richard N., 2001. "The Demand for Food Grain in China: New Insights into a Controversy," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(1), pages 1-9, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:agrerw:v:30:y:2001:i:01:p:1-9_00
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Zhihao Zheng & Shida Rastegari Henneberry, 2009. "An Analysis of Food Demand in China: A Case Study of Urban Households in Jiangsu Province," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 31(4), pages 873-893.
    2. Hovhannisyan, Vardges & Gould, Brian W., 2010. "Quantifying the Structure of Food Demand in China Using a Generalized Quadratic AIDS Specification," 2010 Annual Meeting, February 6-9, 2010, Orlando, Florida 56422, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    3. Kuhlgatz, Christian H. & Huang, Jiaqi & Antonides, Gerrit & Nie, Fengying, 2018. "The Effect of Food Prices and Own-produced Food on Food Security of Chinese Rural Households," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 273988, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Ito, Junichi & Ni, Jing, 2013. "Capital deepening, land use policy, and self-sufficiency in China's grain sector," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 95-107.
    5. He, Dehua & Chidmi, Benaissa & Zhou, Deyi, 2011. "Analyzing the Impact of Food Safety Information on Food Demand in China," 2011 Annual Meeting, July 24-26, 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 103618, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

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