Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/20747 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 1448
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Although urban China has experienced a rapid income growth over the last twenty years, nutrition intake for the low income group declined in the 1990s. Does this imply a zero or negative income elasticity for the low income group? This paper examines this issue using large representative sample of repeated cross-sectional data for the period 1986-2000. It is found that income elasticities of calorie consumption for urban households are far from zero, and the lower the income level the higher the income elasticity. The main reason for the reduction in calorie consumption for the low income group in the early 1990s was a sharp increase in food price. In addition, in the mid to late 1990s large scale social welfare reform increased households? need to pay for education, medical, housing expenses and the need to save for future consumption and income uncertainty. These factors seem to have played an important role in suppressing nutrition consumption of the low income group during this period.
Subjects: 
poverty
income growth
inequality
China
JEL: 
I31
O15
O40
D31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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