David M. Smallwood

ECONOMICS, FOOD CHOICES, AND NUTRITION

Abstract Our goal in this paper is to examine the role and influence of economic factors, defined rather broadly, on consumer food choices, and, hence, nutritional outcomes. We attempt to do this in a non-technical fashion. We examine the role of prices, especially as they relate to the affordability of food in the United States and as a policy lever. Income is analyzed as a driving force behind changes in eating habits, in particular increasing the demand for convenience. The role of time constraints as well as time preference are examined as links to healthy eating habits and as forces behind current trends in eating patterns. Information and knowledge are given prominent play as counter balances to economic forces driving eating habits. We conclude with and examination into maternal nutrition knowledge and childrens dietary quality.

Quasi- and Simulated-Likelihood Approaches to Censored Demand Systems: Food Consumption by Food Stamp Recipients in the United States

A quasi-maximum-likelihood estimator is proposed and applied to a censored Translog demand system for foods, using a sample of food stamp recipients in the United States. The procedure produces remarkably close parameter and elasticity estimates to those of the simulated-maximum-likelihood procedure. A two-step procedure is also considered but it produces different elasticities. Demands are found to be price elastic for pork and fish but price inelastic for all other food products. Gross complementarity and net substitutability are obvious but these cross-price effects are much less pronounced than own-price and total food expenditure effects. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.

Mother's Nutrition Knowledge and Children's Dietary Intakes

This article uses U.S. food consumption data to examine the effect of maternal nutrition knowledge on the dietary intakes of children between two and seventeen years of age. Results show that maternal knowledge influences childrens diets and that such influence decreases as children grow older. Nutrition knowledge acts as a pathway through which maternal education influences childrens diets. This finding supports the hypothesis that education affects health-related choices by raising the allocative efficiency of health input use. The results suggest that nutrition education may be more effective if targeted both toward mothers with young children and directly toward school-age children. Copyright 1999, Oxford University Press.

A Probit Latent Variable Model of Nutrition Information and Dietary Fiber Intake

Nutrition information and intake data for a sample of U.S. household meal planners are used to estimate the effects of fiber-specific information on dietary fiber intake. The information variables are measured using survey questions on fiber content of foods, attitude toward consuming fiber-rich foods, and awareness of fiber-health links. The evidence confirms the influence of nutrition information on fiber intake. Household income, meal planner age, smoking status, vegetarian status, race, and ethnicity are major determinants of both information and intake. Education exerts a sizable intake effect by enhancing the information level. Direct and indirect effects of exogenous variables are reported. Copyright 1996, Oxford University Press.

Economic Incentives for Dietary Improvement Among Food Stamp Recipients

Most Americans need to consume more fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. This need is particularly acute among low-income individuals. This study examines the cost-effectiveness of two economic policies that use alternative policy levers available within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly Food Stamp Program) to increase consumption of these under-consumed foods. Data from three nationally representative surveys are used to estimate demand elasticities, marginal propensity to spend on food out of food stamp benefits, and consumption amount of and spending on under-consumed foods among food stamp recipients. Results suggest that a 10% price subsidy would curtail consumption deficiencies by 4%–7% at an estimated cost of

Consumer Demand for Food and Food Safety: Models and Applications

734 million a year. When the same

Information, endogeneity, and consumer health behaviour: application to dietary intakes

734 million is used to finance food stamp benefits, consumption deficiencies are predicted to narrow by only 0.35%–0.40%.

Socio-economic factors associated with the iron intake of preschoolers in the United States

Invisible hazards and imperfect knowledge and information about foodborne risks make food safety an explosive issue that can disrupt markets and cause substantial economic losses for everyone from farm input suppliers to consumers. The Alar scare in red apples is one recent example. But the range of commodities under scrutiny by consumers includes almost all commodities: fish (federal inspection), poultry (salmonella), fresh eggs (salmonella), red meat (subtherapeutic feeding of antibiotics), pesticide residues (fresh fruits and vegetables and animal feed), and bio-engineered growth promotants (BST in milk). One can also include more general diet and health concerns under the guise of food safety, such as cholesterol, fat, sugar, alcohol, and cigarette smoking.

The Infant Formula Market: Consequences of a Change in the WIC Contract Brand

Due to heightened public health interest, a growing number of consumer health behaviour studies are focusing on the effect of health information on the demand for health inputs and outcomes. Many of these studies, however, have overlooked the potential endogeneity of information variables stemming from unobserved individual heterogeneity. Due to simultaneity bias, ignoring endogeneity may lead to inaccurate estimates of informational effects on health behaviour. Using dietary intake data for fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and fibre, this paper illustrates the pitfalls of treating health information related to these nutrients as exogenous variables in their demand equations. In most of the estimated models, the exogeneity of information is statistically rejected. When the information variables are treated as exogenous variables, their effects on dietary intakes are underestimated. The estimated effects of key intake determinants such as income, education, ethnicity, and race are also different in such a specification compared to a specification which treats information variables as endogenous. Implications for nutrition education policies are discussed.

Interpreting the effects of binary variables in transformed models

Abstract This study investigated household income, food program participation, and diet awareness and attitudes of the household meal planner as predictors of dietary iron intake of preschoolers in the United States. Non-breastfeeding children, 1 to 5 years of age, with 3 days of dietary data from the 1989–1991 Continuing Survey of Food Intake of Individuals were included in this sample (N=800). Two measures of intake were analyzed: a nutrient adequacy ratio (NAR), defined as iron intake divided by the RDA; and an index of nutritional quality (INQ), or diet density measure, which is the ratio of iron NAR to energy NAR. Data from the concurrent Diet and Health Knowledge Survey were used to create indicator variables for meal planners who were aware of anemia as a health problem related to iron intake and who felt it was important to choose a diet with plenty of grain products. After controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, household size, region, and urbanization, multi-variate regression analyses revealed that household income and participation in the WIC food program were positively associated with both iron intake measures. Participation in the Food Stamp program was positively associated with the iron NAR, but not the INQ. Although anemia awareness was not a significant predictor of intake, children from households whose main meal planners had a positive attitude about the importance of grains, consumed more iron as measured by either index. The findings suggest that dietary iron intakes of preschoolers continue to be affected by economic factors and that food transfer and/or educational interventions may be useful in improving these intakes.