Women’s empowerment and food consumption:Evidence from female-headed households in Tanzania

Despite the growing recognition of women’s increasing role in the household and corresponding empowerment programs in sub-Saharan Africa,intensive research on the relationship between women’s influence and household food consumption is minimal.Using the most recent(2017-2018)national household survey data from Tanzania,this study examined the influence of women’s empowerment on household food consumption.First,we compared the monthly consumption of eight food categories between female-headed households(FHHs)and male-headed households(MHHs)using both descriptive statistics and the propensity score matching(PSM)method.Furthermore,we adopted the two-stage Linear Expenditure System and Almost Ideal Demand System model(LES-AIDS)to estimate income and price elasticities for the two household types.The results show that FHHs consume bread and cereals,fish,oils and fats,vegetables,and confectionery(sugar,jam,honey,chocolate,etc.)more than MHHs.Moreover,FHHs have a significantly higher income elasticity of demand for all food groups than MHHs.They are also more price elastic than MHHs in meat,fish,oils,fats,sugar,jam,honey,chocolate,etc.

Impacts of household income on beef at-home consumption:Evidence from urban China

Beef consumption in China has increased substantially from 5.0 million tons in 2000 to 7.7 million tons in 2019 thanks to rapid income growth,but still remains low compared to pork and poultry consumption.Improving the understanding about the impacts of household income on beef consumption in China is necessary to forecast future beef demand and inform the domestic beef industry,especially in the context of unprecedented expansion of middle income class in China.Based on survey data of 32878 urban households collected by the National Bureau of Statistics of China,we employed the inverse hyperbolic sine(IHS)double-hurdle model to estimate income elasticities of beef demand across different income groups and simulated possible trends of future beef consumption of Chinese urban residents.The empirical results showed that the unconditional income elasticities of beef consumption at home vary between 0.169 for the lowincome group and 0.671 for the high-income group.The simulated results indicated that beef consumption is expected to increase by 12.0 to 38.8%in 10 years and by 18.6 to 70.5%in 15 years under distinct income growth scenarios.Our findings provide practical insights for policy makers and other stakeholders about future beef demand,such as potential opportunities embedded in rising beef demand for domestic producers and world beef exporters as well as the urgency of improving the supply chain resilience of beef in China.

Rural resident household food consumption patterns in the Ganzhou district of Zhangye city:an analysis based on ELES Model

Demand for food plays an important role in the adjustment of prices for agricultural products and for adjusting agricultural structure.By using the extended linear expenditure system(ELES),we analyzed the food consumption structure of rural residents in the Ganzhou district of Zhangye city,and determined the basic food-consumption demand,the marginal propensity of consumption,the income elasticities of demand,and the own-price and cross-price elasticities of local rural residents,all of which illustrate the influencing factors on food consumption of rural residents and for forecasting the food-consumption structure.Those analyses show the following:the rural residents’ expenditure on household basic food consumption reaches about 7,050.35 Yuan;the marginal propensities of consumption of fruits and vegetables are relatively high(0.062 and 0.106,respectively),followed by meat(0.044);the demands for various foods are increasing as income increases,with the largest income elasticity of demand corresponding to fruits(1.354) and the lowest to cereal(0.310);fruits and vegetables have relatively high own-price elasticities(respectively-0.879 and-0.442),with the cereal having the lowest one(-0.184).An increase in cereal prices would greatly affect demand for other products;with the rising size of rural households,the consumption for meat is decreasing whereas it is increasing for cereal.The improvement of household education levels will lead to the increase of fruit consumption(E = 0.297),which indicates that people will pay more attention to diet and nutrition structure with the improvement of education.Further,although the amount of cereal expenditure is continually growing,the share will be declining with the increase of household income in 2006-2012.For all these reasons,therefore,the government should encourage the cultivation of economic crops and guide the development of stockbreeding to ensure the stability of cereal output.In order to attain the balance between supply and demand,it is important to rationally adjust the prices of fruits and vegetables on the basis of the stable price of cereal.

Income and Price Elasticities of China's Exports

The appearance of new product varieties and improvements in the quality of goods have both played key roles in the rapid growth of China＇s exports. However, these two important elements have not been formally integrated into the demand equations for China＇s exports. As we demonstrate in this paper, income elasticity will be underestimated if new varieties of goods and quality improvements are omitted in price index and quantity index calculations, which are necessary for estimating the export demand function. Moreover, the faster new product varieties enter export markets, the greater the underestimation will be. In this paper, we develop an export demand equation that takes into account newproduct varieties and improvements in quality, and then calculate the demand function for China＇s exports using the data from 1992 to 2006. According to our estimation, the short-term income elasticity of demand for China ＂s exports is approximately 2.34, and the short-term price elasticity is approximately-0. 65. Our estimation predicts an increase in China＇s export value in the case of an RMB appreciation or export rebate rates reduction in the short term, due to the low price elasticity of China＇s exports, whose absolute value is less than 1. Our findings are novel and could have significant policy implications.

Xu Tian, Xiaohua YuThe Demand for Nutrients in China

China is experiencing a nutritional transition accompanied by its rapid economic growth. However, the relationship between income growth and nutritional improvement is still unclear. In contrast with the biased indirect method, this paper employs a direct method to estimate the income elasticities of 22 nutrients using household survey data to fill the gap in the current literature. Our results indicate that the income elasticities of most nutrients are smaller than that which is stated in the current literature using the indirect method, and vary for different income groups.