Abstract
Food consumption patterns in Asia show a trend away from staples toward high protein food derived from animal and dairy products, fruit and vegetables, fats and oils. Such changes in food consumption patterns are due to rising incomes, urbanization, globalization, and modernization of marketing infrastructure. In this article, we analyze the demand for the animal-derived food group comprising meat (chicken, beef, pork, and mutton), eggs and fish, and derive income and price elasticities in seven Asian countries using the system-wide approach. Demand homogeneity and Slutsky symmetry properties were tested and found to be compatible with the data. Our findings reveal that animal-derived food as a group is a necessity (except in Taiwan) and its demand is price inelastic (except in Taiwan and Sri Lanka). The implied unconditional demand elasticities reveal that, in all countries (except beef in Japan and Taiwan), chicken, beef, pork, mutton, eggs and fish (except in Taiwan) are all necessities and the demand for all types of animal-derived food in all seven countries are mostly price inelastic. The cross-price elasticity estimates are mostly found to be positive, meaning that there is a higher degree of substitutability between chicken, beef, pork, mutton, eggs, and fish.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 97-122 |
Number of pages | 26 |
Journal | Agricultural Economics |
Volume | 52 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 23 Jan 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jan 2021 |
Bibliographical note
The authors would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers, Area Editor, and the Editor of this journal for their constructive comments. We would also like to thank Ms. Tanya Parker for her excellent research assistance.Data Availability Statement
Supporting Information: Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section at the end of the article.Keywords
- animal-derived food
- Asian countries
- consumption patterns
- demand elasticities
- system-wide approach