Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/21057 
Year of Publication: 
2000
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 212
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We analyze Engel curves for nuclear households in rural China. The sample includes more than 5000 nuclear families covering nineteen out of thirty Chinese provinces. We consider expenditures on food, also subdivided into several food subcategories such as cereals, or meat and fish, and other consumption categories such as alcohol and tobacco, medical, and educational goods. We use the semiparametric partially linear model. This allows for any functional form relationship between the budget shares and total expenditures, but assumes that the demographic variables enter the model in a linear way. We correct for potential endogeneity of total expenditures. Our results suggest that there are economies of scale in families ?consumption expenditure patterns. We find some differences in consumption patterns which relate to differences in gender of children, which can be seen as evidence of sexual bias related to a commonly believed existing preference for boys.
Subjects: 
Household economics
consumption
bias
gender differences
Engel curve
China
JEL: 
C14
D63
J16
C20
R20
D12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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