Food Prices and Consumer Demand: Differences across Income Levels and Ethnic Groups
نویسندگان
چکیده
BACKGROUND Targeted food pricing policies may improve population diets. To assess their effects on inequalities, it is important to determine responsiveness to price changes across income levels and ethnic groups. OBJECTIVE Our goal was to estimate price elasticity (PE) values for major commonly consumed food groups in New Zealand, by income and ethnicity. PE values represent percentage change in demand associated with 1% change in price of that good (own-PE) or another good (cross-PE). DESIGN We used food expenditure data from national household economic surveys in 2007/08 and 2009/10 and Food Price Index data from 2007 and 2010. Adopting an Almost Ideal Demand System approach, own-PE and cross-PE estimates were derived for 24 food categories, household income quintiles, and two ethnic groups (Māori and non-Māori). RESULTS Own-PE estimates (with two exceptions) ranged from -0.44 to -1.78. Cross-PE estimates were generally small; only 31% of absolute values were greater than 0.10. Excluding the outlier 'energy drinks', nine of 23 food groups had significantly stronger own-PEs for the lowest versus highest income quintiles (average regression-based difference across food groups -0.30 (95% CI -0.62 to 0.02)). Six own-PEs were significantly stronger among Māori; the average difference for Māori: non-Māori across food groups was -0.26 (95% CI -0.52 to 0.00). CONCLUSIONS Food pricing policies have potential to improve population diets. The greater sensitivity of low-income households and Māori to price changes suggests the beneficial effects of such policies on health would be greatest for these groups.
منابع مشابه
Demographic and Socioeconomic Determinants of Physical and Mental Self-rated Health Across 10 Ethnic Groups in the United States
Background and aims: The aim of this study was to explore ethnic differences in demographic and socioeconomic determinants of poor physical and mental self-rated health (SRH) in the United States. Methods: We used data from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES) 2001- 2003, which included a national household probability sample of 18237 individuals including 520 Vietnamese, 5...
متن کاملFood Price Change and its Welfare Impact on Iranian Households
Iran has experienced high food prices in recent years. This paper examines the welfare impacts of rising major food groups' prices on Iranian urban households using Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) approach. The elasticity coefficients derived from QUAIDS are used to estimate Compensated Variations (CV).The study uses Iranian Household Expenditure and Income Survey (HEIS) raw data,...
متن کاملThe Heterogeneous Geographic and Socioeconomic Incidence of Cigarette Taxes: Evidence from Nielsen Homescan Data
This paper uses Nielsen Homescan data at the Universal Product Code-transaction level to identify how cigarette taxes are passed through to consumer prices in order to determine how the supply and demand-side split the excess burden of taxation. We find that these excise taxes are less than fully passed through to consumer prices. Using information on consumer location and the location of purch...
متن کاملAdjusting Prices for Inflation and Creating Price Indices
INTRODUCTION Prices are a standard and important component of market and food security analysis because they serve as an indicator of both food availability and food access. Prices are a measure of availability because they tend to rise as the supply of food falls in relation to demand (e.g., poor production, constrained imports of food), and they tend to fall when supply expands in relation to...
متن کاملRising food prices and household welfare : Evidence from Brazil in 2008
Rising Food Prices and Household Welfare: Evidence from Brazil in 2008 Food price inflation in Brazil in the twelve months to June 2008 was 18 percent, while overall inflation was 5.3 percent. This paper uses spatially disaggregated monthly data on consumer prices and two different household surveys to estimate the welfare consequences of these food price increases, and their distribution acros...
متن کامل