IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jpolec/v106y1998i5p897-930.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economies of Scale, Household Size, and the Demand for Food

Author

Listed:
  • Angus Deaton
  • Christina Paxson

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate that the empirical evidence is exactly the opposite of the theo-retical predictions. With total household expenditure per capita (PCE) held constant, expenditure per head on food falls with the number of heads. The result appears to be quite general; we find it not only in the United States, but also in Britain and France, and more surprisingly, in Taiwan, Thailand, Pakistan and among African households in South Africa. The size of the effect is also contrary to the theoretical analysis. In the United States, Britain, and France, food consumption falls by only a small amount as the scale of the household increases.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Angus Deaton & Christina Paxson, 1998. "Economies of Scale, Household Size, and the Demand for Food," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(5), pages 897-930, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:v:106:y:1998:i:5:p:897-930
    DOI: 10.1086/250035
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/250035
    File Function: main text
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/250035?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Moffitt, Robert, 1989. "Estimating the Value of an In-Kind Transfer: The Case of Food Stamps," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(2), pages 385-409, March.
    2. Deaton,Angus & Muellbauer,John, 1980. "Economics and Consumer Behavior," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521296762, September.
    3. Thomas M. Fraker & Alberto P. Martini & James C. Ohls, 1995. "The Effect of Food Stamp Cashout on Food Expenditures: An Assessment of the Findings from Four Demonstrations," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 30(4), pages 633-649.
    4. Robinson, Peter M, 1988. "Root- N-Consistent Semiparametric Regression," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(4), pages 931-954, July.
    5. Lanjouw, Peter & Ravallion, Martin, 1995. "Poverty and Household Size," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(433), pages 1415-1434, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guillermo Cruces, 2005. "Income Fluctuations, Poverty and Well-Being Over Time: Theory and Application to Argentina," Labor and Demography 0502007, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Blow, Laura & Crawford, Ian, 2002. "A nonparametric method for valuing new goods," Working Paper Series 143, European Central Bank.
    3. Gozalo, Pedro L., 1997. "Nonparametric bootstrap analysis with applications to demographic effects in demand functions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 357-393, December.
    4. Aaberge, Rolf & Eika, Lasse & Langørgen, Audun & Mogstad, Magne, 2019. "Local governments, in-kind transfers, and economic inequality," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    5. Miguel Szekely & Nora Lustig & Martin Cumpa & Jose Antonio Mejia, 2004. "Do we know how much poverty there is?," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 523-558.
    6. Wilde, Parke E., 2001. "The Food Stamp Benefit Formula: Implications For Empirical Research On Food Demand," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 26(1), pages 1-16, July.
    7. Valizadeh, Pourya & Smith, Travis A., 2017. "How Did the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Impact the Material Well-being of SNAP Participants? A Distributional Approach," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258496, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    8. Francisco Javier Lasso V. & Cristian Camilo Frasser L., 2015. "Calidad del empleo y bienestar: un análisis con escalas de equivalencia," Revista ESPE - Ensayos Sobre Política Económica, Banco de la República, vol. 33(77), pages 117-132, June.
    9. Dreze, Jean & Srinivasan, P. V., 1997. "Widowhood and poverty in rural India: Some inferences from household survey data," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 217-234, December.
    10. Neeraj Kaushal & Qin Gao, 2011. "Food Stamp Program and Consumption Choices," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Aspects of Obesity, pages 223-247, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Angus S. Deaton & Christina Paxson, 1998. "Measuring Poverty among the Elderly," NBER Chapters, in: Inquiries in the Economics of Aging, pages 169-204, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Jagannadha Tamvada, 2010. "Entrepreneurship and welfare," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 65-79, January.
    13. Székely, Miguel & Hilgert, Marianne, 1999. "What's Behind the Inequality We Measure: An Investigation Using Latin American Data," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1309, Inter-American Development Bank.
    14. Diane Whitmore, 2002. "What Are Food Stamps Worth?," Working Papers 847, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    15. Breunig, Robert & Dasgupta, Indraneel & Gundersen, Craig & Pattanaik, Prasanta, 2001. "Explaining The Food Stamp Cash-Out Puzzle," Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Reports 33869, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    16. Miguel Székely & Nora Lustig & Martin Cumpa & José Antonio Mejía-Guerra, 2000. "¿Sabemos qué tanta pobreza hay?," Research Department Publications 4240, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    17. Hengartner, Nicolas W. & Sperlich, Stefan, 2005. "Rate optimal estimation with the integration method in the presence of many covariates," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 246-272, August.
    18. Echeverría, Lucía, 2022. "Sensibilidad del análisis de la pobreza a las escalas de equivalencias. Una aplicación para Argentina," Nülan. Deposited Documents 3789, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales, Centro de Documentación.
    19. Julio Cáceres & Dante Contreras, 1999. "Asignación de Recursos en los Hogares Pobres de Chile," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 36(108), pages 727-760.
    20. Ravallion, Martin, 2015. "On testing the scale sensitivity of poverty measures," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 88-90.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:v:106:y:1998:i:5:p:897-930. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JPE .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.