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Does income growth improve diet diversity in China?

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  • Doan, Dung

Abstract

Recent studies on income and nutrition suggest that income growth plays either a small or even a negative role in influencing diet quality in China, especially for low income households. Such arguments cast doubt on the conventional reliance on income as a policy tool to improve public health through better diets. They, however, have been drawn mostly from analysis of income effect on nutrient intakes and diet adequacy. No research has been done on how income affects diet diversity in China, despite its unambiguous health benefits. This paper tests if income growth improves diet diversity, and, thus, can enhance public health in China, using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey 2004-2009. For the first time, potential endogeneity of income, most likely due to omitted variables, is addressed in the estimation of income effect on diet diversity by instrumental variables. This study finds that, regardless of estimation methods, income effect is significant and positive, but diminishes along the income distribution and over time. When endogeneity of income is controlled in 2SLS estimation, estimated income effect is considerably larger than the corresponding OLS estimate. OLS regression shows that education has significant and positive effects on diet diversity, with larger effects at higher education levels. Nevertheless, education effects diminish in terms of both magnitude and statistical significance in the 2SLS estimation. The stark differences between OLS and 2SLS estimates suggest that it is important to account for endogeneity of income. The OLS estimation seemingly understates income effects and overstates education effects. It, therefore, might mislead resource allocation in designing food and health policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Doan, Dung, 2014. "Does income growth improve diet diversity in China?," 2014 Conference (58th), February 4-7, 2014, Port Macquarie, Australia 165836, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:aare14:165836
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.165836
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    Cited by:

    1. Clément, Matthieu, 2017. "The income-body-size gradient among Chinese urban adults: A semiparametric analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 253-270.
    2. Mohammad Ali & Kira M. Villa & Janak Joshi, 2018. "Health and hunger: nutrient response to income depending on caloric availability in Nepal," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(5), pages 611-621, September.
    3. Ren, Yanjun & Castro Campos, Bente & Loy, Jens-Peter & Brosig, Stephan, 2019. "Low-income and overweight in China: Evidence from a life-course utility model," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 18(8), pages 1753-1767.
    4. Shinoj Parappurathu & Anjani Kumar & M. Bantilan & P. Joshi, 2015. "Food consumption patterns and dietary diversity in eastern India: evidence from village level studies (VLS)," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 7(5), pages 1031-1042, October.
    5. Rizov, Marian & Cupak, Andrej & Pokrivcak, Jan, 2014. "Demand for the Food Diversity in Central and Eastern European Countries: an Evidence from Slovakia," 2014 Third Congress, June 25-27, 2014, Alghero, Italy 172978, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA).
    6. Qiyan Zeng & Zhipeng He & Yuting Wang, 2022. "The Direct and Structure Effect of Income on Nutrition Demand of Chinese Rural Residents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-13, October.
    7. Sukhwinder Singh & Andrew D. Jones & Ruth S. DeFries & Meha Jain, 2020. "The association between crop and income diversity and farmer intra-household dietary diversity in India," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(2), pages 369-390, April.
    8. Braha, Kushtrim & Cupak, Andrej & Qineti, Artan & Pokrivcak, Jan, 2018. "Food Demand System in Transition Economies: Evidence from Kosovo," 162nd Seminar, April 26-27, 2018, Budapest, Hungary 272050, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Sayla Khandoker & Alka Singh & Shivendra Kumar Srivastava, 2022. "Leveraging farm production diversity for dietary diversity: evidence from national level panel data," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-20, December.
    10. Ren, Yanjun & Castro Campos, Bente & Peng, Yanling & Glauben, Thomas, 2021. "Nutrition transition with accelerating urbanization? Empirical evidence from rural China," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 13(3).
    11. Ren, Yanjun & Li, Hui & Wang, Xiaobing, 2019. "Family income and nutrition-related health: Evidence from food consumption in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 58-76.

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    Keywords

    Consumer/Household Economics; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety;

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