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Did the poor pay more? Income-related variations in diet and food quality among urban households in Sweden, 1913–1914

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  • Stefan Öberg

Abstract

We investigate the behaviors used by households to economize on their spending on food using data from a budget survey of urban households in Sweden in 1913–1914. Higher-income households bought higher-quality varieties of both luxury and staple foods. But changing the composition of the diet was a much more important way to adjust spending on food than changing the quality of the foods bought. Higher incomes allowed households to increase the variability of their diets as well as to increase the enjoyability of the staple foods that dominated diets at the time.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Öberg, 2016. "Did the poor pay more? Income-related variations in diet and food quality among urban households in Sweden, 1913–1914," HHB Working Papers Series 4, The Historical Household Budgets Project.
    • Handle: RePEc:hbu:wpaper:4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mark Bils & Peter J. Klenow, 2001. "Quantifying Quality Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1006-1030, September.
    2. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2007. "Life-Cycle Prices and Production," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1533-1559, December.
    3. Rebecca Taylor & Sofia B. Villas-Boas, 2016. "Food Store Choices of Poor Households: A Discrete Choice Analysis of the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS)," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 98(2), pages 513-532.
    4. Christer Lundh, 2013. "Was there an urban-rural consumption gap? The standard of living of workers in southern Sweden, 1914-1920," Scandinavian Economic History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 61(3), pages 233-258, November.
    5. Richard Mussa, 2015. "Do the Poor Pay More for Maize in Malawi?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 546-563, 05-27.
    6. Gibson, John & Kim, Bonggeun, 2013. "Do the urban poor face higher food prices? Evidence from Vietnam," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 193-203.
    7. Kaufman, Phillip R. & MacDonald, James M. & Lutz, Steve M. & Smallwood, David M., 1997. "Do the Poor Pay More for Food? Item Selection and Price Differences Affect Low-Income Household Food Costs," Agricultural Economic Reports 34065, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    8. Christian Broda & Ephraim Leibtag & David E. Weinstein, 2009. "The Role of Prices in Measuring the Poor's Living Standards," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 77-97, Spring.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kota Ogasawara, 2018. "Consumption smoothing in the working-class households of interwar Japan," Papers 1807.05737, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • N34 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: 1913-

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