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Did the poor pay more? Income-related variations in diet and food quality among urban households in Sweden, 1913–1914

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  • Stefan Öberg

Abstract

We investigate the behaviors used by households to economize on their spending on food using data from a budget survey of urban households in Sweden in 1913–1914. Higher-income households bought higher-quality varieties of both luxury and staple foods. But changing the composition of the diet was a much more important way to adjust spending on food than changing the quality of the foods bought. Higher incomes allowed households to increase the variability of their diets as well as to increase the enjoyability of the staple foods that dominated diets at the time.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Öberg, 2016. "Did the poor pay more? Income-related variations in diet and food quality among urban households in Sweden, 1913–1914," HHB Working Papers Series 4, The Historical Household Budgets Project.
    • Handle: RePEc:hbu:wpaper:4
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark Bils & Peter J. Klenow, 2001. "Quantifying Quality Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1006-1030, September.
    2. Rebecca Taylor & Sofia B. Villas-Boas, 2016. "Food Store Choices of Poor Households: A Discrete Choice Analysis of the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS)," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 98(2), pages 513-532.
    3. Richard Mussa, 2015. "Do the Poor Pay More for Maize in Malawi?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 546-563, 05-27.
    4. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2007. "Life-Cycle Prices and Production," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1533-1559, December.
    5. Christian Broda & Ephraim Leibtag & David E. Weinstein, 2009. "The Role of Prices in Measuring the Poor's Living Standards," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 77-97, Spring.
    6. Kaufman, Phillip R. & MacDonald, James M. & Lutz, Steve M. & Smallwood, David M., 1997. "Do the Poor Pay More for Food? Item Selection and Price Differences Affect Low-Income Household Food Costs," Agricultural Economic Reports 34065, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kota Ogasawara, 2018. "Consumption smoothing in the working-class households of interwar Japan," Papers 1807.05737, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    dietary change; food consumption; household consumption; LONGH Cohort; quality elasticity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • N34 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: 1913-

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