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American Economic Review Vol. 104 No. 3 2014

Do Prices and Attributes Explain International Differences in Food Purchases?

Pierre Dubois1; Rachel Griffith2; Aviv Nevo3

1 Toulouse School of Economics, 21 allée de Brienne, 31015 Toulouse Cedex 6 France (e-mail: ) · 2 Institute for Fiscal Studies and the University of Manchester, 7 Ridgmount Street, London WC1E 7AE UK (e-mail: ) · 3 Department of Economics, Northwestern University, 2001 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-2600, and NBER (e-mail: )

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Abstract

Food purchases differ substantially across countries. We use detailed household-level data from the United States, France, and the United Kingdom to (i) document these differences; (ii) estimate a demand system for food and nutrients; and (iii) simulate counterfactual choices if households faced prices and nutritional characteristics from other countries. We find that differences in prices and characteristics are important and can explain some difference (e.g., United States–France difference in caloric intake) but generally cannot explain many of the compositional patterns by themselves. Instead, it seems an interaction between the economic environment and differences in preferences is needed to explain cross-country differences.

DOI
10.1257/aer.104.3.832
Volume
104
Issue
3
Pages
832-867
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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