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Dietary Structural Change in China's Cities: Empirical Fact or Urban Legend?

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  • Fengxia Dong
  • Frank Fuller

Abstract

China's economic reforms, which began in 1978, resulted in remarkable income growth, and urban Chinese consumers have responded by dramatically increasing their consumption of meat, other livestock products and fruits and by decreasing consumption of grain‐based foods. Economic prosperity, a growing openness to international markets, and domestic policy reforms have changed the food marketing environment for Chinese consumers and may have contributed to shifts in consumer food demand. The objective of this paper is to uncover evidence of structural change in food consumption among urban residents in China. Both parametric and nonparametric methods are used to test for structural change in aggregate household data from 1981 to 2004. The tests provided a reasonably clear picture of changing food consumption over the study period. En Chine, les réformes économiques amorcées en 1978 ont entraîné une croissance remarquable du revenu à laquelle les consommateurs urbains chinois ont réagi en augmentant considérablement leur consommation de viande, d'autres produits d'élevage et de fruits et en diminuant leur consommation de produits alimentaires à base de céréales. La prospéritééconomique, une ouverture croissante sur les marchés internationaux et les réformes de la politique intérieure ont modifié l'environnement commercial des produits alimentaires des consommateurs chinois et peuvent avoir contribuéà modifier la demande des consommateurs pour des produits alimentaires. Le présent article visait à recueillir des preuves de changement structurel dans la consommation alimentaire des citadins chinois. Nous avons utilisé des méthodes paramétriques et non paramétriques pour tester les changements structurels à partir de données agrégées sur les foyers de 1981 à 2004. Les tests ont brossé un tableau assez clair de l'évolution de la consommation alimentaire au cours de la période à l'étude.

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  • Fengxia Dong & Frank Fuller, 2010. "Dietary Structural Change in China's Cities: Empirical Fact or Urban Legend?," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 58(1), pages 73-91, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:canjag:v:58:y:2010:i:1:p:73-91
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-7976.2009.01159.x
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    3. Ortega, David L. & Wang, H. Holly & Wu, Laping & Hong, Soo Jeong, 2015. "Retail channel and consumer demand for food quality in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 359-366.
    4. Vardges Hovhannisyan & Aleksan Shanoyan, 2020. "An Empirical Analysis of the Welfare Consequences of Rising Food Prices in Urban China: The Easi Approach," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(4), pages 796-814, December.
    5. Hovhannisyan, Vardges, 2016. "New Evidence On The Structure Of Food Demand In China: An Easi Demand Model Estimated Via Panel Data Techniques," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 236889, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Jing You, 2014. "Dietary change, nutrient transition and food security in fast-growing China," Chapters, in: Raghbendra Jha & Raghav Gaiha & Anil B. Deolalikar (ed.), Handbook on Food, chapter 9, pages 204-245, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Bai, Junfei & Seale Jr, James L. & Wahl, Thomas I., 2020. "Meat demand in China: to include or not to include meat away from home?," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 64(1), January.
    8. Jincheng Huang & Yueyan Liu & Xiaoying Zhang & Yu Wang & Yisong Wang, 2019. "A Scenario-Based Simulation of Land System Changes on Dietary Changes: A Case Study in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-18, September.
    9. Vardges Hovhannisyan & Marin Bozic, 2017. "Price Endogeneity and Food Demand in Urban China," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(2), pages 386-406, June.
    10. Hovhannisyan, Vardges & Shanoyan, Aleksan, 2018. "An Empirical Analysis Of Welfare Consequences Of Rising Food Prices In Urban China: The Easi Approach," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 273987, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Hovhannisyan, Vardges & Bozic, Marin, 2014. "On Price Endogeneity in the Analysis of Food Demand in China," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 169767, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Vardges Hovhannisyan & Stephen Devadoss, 2020. "Effects of urbanization on food demand in China," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 699-721, February.
    13. Mendis, Sachintha & Hovhannisyan, Vardges, 2017. "Assessing Provincial-Level Demand For Food Quantity And Quality In China: An Easi Demand System Approach," 2017 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2017, Mobile, Alabama 252797, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    14. Hovhannisyan, Vardges & Gould, Brian W., 2012. "Structural Changes in Chinese Food Preferences," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 125978, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Ma, Meilin & Wang, H. Holly & Hua, Yizhou & Qin, Fei & Yang, Jing, 2021. "African swine fever in China: Impacts, responses, and policy implications," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    16. Tomoki Fujii, 2014. "Is urban food demand in the Philippines different from China?," Working Papers 18-2014, Singapore Management University, School of Economics.
    17. Hovhannisyan, Vardges & Devadoss, Stephen, 2017. "Effects of Urbanization on Food Demand in China," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258436, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
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