中国贫困农村的食物需求与营养弹性

Food Demand and Nutritional Elasticity in Poor Areas of Rural China

运用来自中国贫困地区的农户水平数据，本文研究了总消费水平与食物和营养需求之间的关系。结果发现，在中国的贫困农村地区，虽然食物需求非常具有弹性，弹性值估计在０．７４左右，但营养需求则相对缺乏弹性，其弹性只有０．１４左右。因此，一定程度的营养干预也许会对改善贫困地区的营养状况具有重要意义。

Using household level data from poor areas of rural China,this paper investigates the relationship between total consumption and the demand for food and nutrition.The findings show that the demand for food is very elastic,with an estimated elasticity of 0.74,but the demand for nutrition is relatively inelastic,with an estimated elasticity of 0.14.This suggests that the growth in food consumption does not necessarily lead to an increase of nutritional intakes,but rather to improving the ‘quality’ or ‘taste’ of the food.