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Estimating the Impact of Education on Household Fruit and Vegetable Purchases
Author(s) -
Berning Joshua,
Hogan John J.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
applied economic perspectives and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.4
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 2040-5804
pISSN - 2040-5790
DOI - 10.1093/aepp/ppu006
Subject(s) - human capital , formal education , economics , quality (philosophy) , agricultural economics , college education , business , demographic economics , economic growth , psychology , pedagogy , philosophy , epistemology
We examine the effect that investments in education have on household expenditure on fruits and vegetables using a two‐stage model that accounts for differences in ability and heterogeneous returns to education. For this, we use the 2008 Consumer Expenditure Survey for the United States. We find that higher levels of education contribute to greater household expenditures on both fresh and processed fruits and vegetables. We find a nonlinear effect on fresh fruits and vegetables, indicating that education impacts the quality of purchases as well. Although nutritional education is often touted as important for a healthful diet, these results highlight how investments in human capital via formal education can potentially improve dietary quality as well.