IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/24726.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Calorie and Nutrient Consumption as a Function of Income: A Cross-Country Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Salois, Matthew
  • Tiffin, Richard
  • Balcombe, Kelvin

Abstract

The relationship between calorie and nutrient (fat, protein, and carbohydrates) intake as a function of income is explored using data for 171 countries over two time periods 1990-1992 and 2003-2005. Three types of analysis are employed: i) nonparametric, ii) panel regressions, and iii) quantile regressions. Engle curves for calories, fat, and protein are approximately linear in logs with carbohydrate intakes exhibiting diminishing elasticities as incomes increase, becoming negative around $US7500 and above. Other nutrient and calorie elasticity estimates are positive statistically significant. Elasticities range from 0.10 to 0.25, with fat having the highest elasticities. The estimated elasticities for the quantile regressions are similar across the 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 quantiles, but with moderate evidence that countries in the higher quantiles have lower elasticities than those in the lower quantiles. There has been a small but significant shift in the elasticities across the two periods.

Suggested Citation

  • Salois, Matthew & Tiffin, Richard & Balcombe, Kelvin, 2010. "Calorie and Nutrient Consumption as a Function of Income: A Cross-Country Analysis," MPRA Paper 24726, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:24726
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/24726/1/MPRA_paper_24726.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abdulai, Awudu & Aubert, Dominique, 2004. "Nonparametric and parametric analysis of calorie consumption in Tanzania," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 113-129, April.
    2. Pitt, Mark M, 1983. "Food Preferences and Nutrition in Rural Bangladesh," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(1), pages 105-114, February.
    3. Subramanian, Shankar & Deaton, Angus, 1996. "The Demand for Food and Calories," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(1), pages 133-162, February.
    4. J. Gibson & S. Rozelle, 2002. "How Elastic is Calorie Demand? Parametric, Nonparametric, and Semiparametric Results for Urban Papua New Guinea," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(6), pages 23-46.
    5. Sahn, David E, 1988. "The Effect of Price and Income Changes on Food-Energy Intake in Sri Lanka," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(2), pages 315-340, January.
    6. Jayachandran N. Variyam & James Blaylock & David Smallwood, 2002. "Characterizing the Distribution of Macronutrient Intake among U.S. Adults: A Quantile Regression Approach," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 84(2), pages 454-466.
    7. Skoufias, Emmanuel, 2003. "Is the Calorie-Income Elasticity Sensitive to Price Changes? Evidence from Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 1291-1307, July.
    8. Reutlinger, Shlomo & Alderman, Harold, 1980. "The prevalence of calorie-deficient diets in developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 8(5-6), pages 399-411.
    9. Ravallion, Martin, 1990. "Income Effects on Undernutrition," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(3), pages 489-515, April.
    10. Richard Tiffin & P. J. Dawson, 2002. "The Demand for Calories: Some Further Estimates from Zimbabwe," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 221-232.
    11. Bouis, Howarth E. & Haddad, Lawrence J., 1992. "Are estimates of calorie-income fxelasticities too high? : A recalibration of the plausible range," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 333-364, October.
    12. Behrman, Jere R. & Wolfe, Barbara L., 1987. "How does mother's schooling affect family health, nutrition, medical care usage, and household sanitation?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-2), pages 185-204.
    13. Wolfe, Barbara L & Behrman, Jere R, 1983. "Is Income Overrated in Determining Adequate Nutrition?," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(3), pages 525-549, April.
    14. David J. Spiegelhalter & Nicola G. Best & Bradley P. Carlin & Angelika van der Linde, 2002. "Bayesian measures of model complexity and fit," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 64(4), pages 583-639.
    15. Ward, John O & Sanders, John H, 1980. "Nutritional Determinants and Migration in the Brazilian Northeast: A Case Study of Rural and Urban Ceara," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 141-163, October.
    16. Geir Wæhler Gustavsen & Kyrre Rickertsen, 2006. "A Censored Quantile Regression Analysis of Vegetable Demand: The Effects of Changes in Prices and Total Expenditure," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 54(4), pages 631-645, December.
    17. Nilanjana Roy, 2001. "A semiparametric analysis of calorie response to income change across income groups and gender," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 93-109.
    18. Barry Popkin & Shu Wen Ng, 2007. "The nutrition transition in high- and low-income countries: what are the policy lessons?," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 37(s1), pages 199-211, December.
    19. Bouis, Howarth E., 1994. "The effect of income on demand for food in poor countries: Are our food consumption databases giving us reliable estimates?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 199-226, June.
    20. P. J. Dawson, 1997. "The demand for calories in developing countries," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 361-369.
    21. Behrman, Jere R & Deolalikar, Anil B & Wolfe, Barbara L, 1988. "Nutrients: Impacts and Determinants," World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 2(3), pages 299-320, September.
    22. Pitt, Mark M & Rosenzweig, Mark R, 1985. "Health and Nutrient Consumption across and within Farm Households," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(2), pages 212-223, May.
    23. Chib, Siddhartha & Greenberg, Edward, 1995. "Hierarchical analysis of SUR models with extensions to correlated serial errors and time-varying parameter models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 339-360, August.
    24. Emmanuel Skoufias & Vincenzo Di Maro & Teresa González-Cossío & Sonia Rodríguez Ramírez, 2009. "Nutrient consumption and household income in rural Mexico," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(6), pages 657-675, November.
    25. Behrman, Jere R. & Wolfe, Barbara L., 1984. "More evidence on nutrition demand : Income seems overrated and women's schooling underemphasized," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 105-128.
    26. Franque Grimard, 1996. "Does the Poor’s Consumption of Calories Respond to Changes in Income? Evidence from Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 35(3), pages 257-283.
    27. Behrman, Jere R & Deolalikar, Anil B, 1989. "Is Variety the Spice of Life? Implications for Calorie Intake," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(4), pages 666-672, November.
    28. Philip J. Dawson & Richard Tiffin, 1998. "Estimating the Demand for Calories in India," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 80(3), pages 474-481.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Phiri, Andrew & Dube, Wisdom, 2014. "Nutrition and economic growth in South Africa: A momentum threshold autoregressive (MTAR) approach," MPRA Paper 52950, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Tukae Mbegalo & Xiaohua Yu, 2016. "The Impact of Food Prices on Household Welfare and Poverty in Rural Tanzania," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 216, Courant Research Centre PEG.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Calorie and Nutrient Consumption; Food and Nutrition Policies; Income Elasticities; Nonparametric Regression; Panel Data; Quantile Regression.;

    JEL classification:

    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • C11 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Bayesian Analysis: General
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:24726. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Joachim Winter) or (Rebekah McClure). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.