THE GEOGRAPHY OF POVERTY AND NUTRITION: FOOD DESERTS AND FOOD CHOICES ACROSS THE UNITED STATES Hunt Allcott
نویسندگان
چکیده
We study the causes of “nutritional inequality”: why the wealthy tend to eat more healthfully than the poor in the U.S. Using event study designs exploiting supermarket entry and households’ moves to healthier neighborhoods, we reject that neighborhood environments have meaningful effects on healthy eating. Using a structural demand model, we find that exposing low-income households to the same availability and prices experienced by high-income households reduces nutritional inequality by only 9%, while the remaining 91% is driven by differences in demand. These findings contrast with discussions of nutritional inequality that emphasize supply-side factors such as food deserts.
منابع مشابه
The Geography of Poverty and Nutrition: Food Deserts and Food Choices Across the United States
We study and quantify the variation in healthful consumption habits across income brackets in the United States. Using a detailed grocery shopping database, we document a positive nutrition-income gradient: the highest-income quartile of households buy groceries that are 0.25 standard deviations more healthful than the lowest-income quartile. We then study the underlying mechanisms leading to t...
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