Examining the heterogeneity in calorie–income elasticities: A meta-analysis

Several studies conducted over the past three decades on calorie–income relationship appear to give inconclusive results. This paper reviews these studies and employs meta-regression analysis to examine the potential publication bias in the calorie–income elasticity, as well as the impact of specific study attributes on the elasticities that have been reported in the empirical literature. A total of 40 empirical studies, which yielded 99 estimated elasticities were considered. The results indicate the presence of publication bias in the reported elasticities. Besides, the estimates revealed evidence of positive and significant empirical effect of income on calorie intake from all the studies that goes beyond publication bias. Study attributes such as ranking of the journal, panel data used in the analysis, whether expenditure was used as proxy for income, year of primary survey, sample size, and numbers of the years of primary data were found to have statistically significant impacts on the reported calorie–income elasticities in the literature.