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Calorie Elasticities with Income Dynamics: Evidence from the Literature
Author(s) -
Zhou De,
Yu Xiaohua
Publication year - 2015
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/ppu043
Subject(s) - economics , consumption (sociology) , calorie , poverty , purchasing power parity , purchasing power , econometrics , autonomous consumption , demographic economics , macroeconomics , economic growth , endocrinology , biology , debt , social science , sociology , exchange rate
Abstract This paper proposes a finite mixture model to identify the behavioral transition of calorie consumption with an assumption that nutrition consumption is a mixture of behaviors in two different stages: a poor stage and an affluent stage. Based on a meta‐analysis of 387 calorie‐income elasticities collected from 90 primary studies, it is found that the threshold income for calorie demand transition is $460 in 2012 prices. This implies that the transitional threshold for calorie consumption is $1.26/day, which is slightly lower than the World Bank's poverty line ($1.25/day in 2005 purchasing power parity prices) after deflation. This study provides a new empirical approach to evaluate the transition of calorie consumption and poverty line.