Effects Of Changes In Food Prices For Urban Residents Living

Food is the most important source for human-beings to sustain their lives and gain basic nutrients, and the price of food is the basic price element that affect people’s living standard, and food is the foundation to control the national macroeconomic. In recent years, Jiangsu Province has got a high-speed economy growth, the living standard of urban residents has improved, at the same time, their food consumption level and consumption structure also changed significantly. The consumption proportion of some food changed constantly, such as grain, edible oil, vegetables, meat and poultry, etc. Meanwhile, the price of some food rise and fall sharply, the prices of edible oil, pork and vegetables fluctuate most obviously and cause intense attention from the whole society. Due to urban residents are net consumers of food, sharp change of food prices will directly affect their consumption behavior, which will produce bigger effect on the lives of urban residents. But because the proportion of subdivided food is different, the degree of the effects of rising prices are also different. So, which kind of food price incease plays more importent role in urban residents’daily lives and need to be focused on, and what kind of food price change is insignificant that can be regulated by the market without interposition? Scientific answers to these questions are the research key point, it has strong practical significance and can provide the micro guidance for macroeconomic policy drafting.Based on the food consumption of urban residents in Jiangsu Province, using the data of Jiangsu Statistical Yearbook for reference, first of all, researching the change trend of living level and food consumption, especially the food prices and spending levels from1993to2011of urban residents in Jiangsu Province; Secondly, focusing on food, dry beans and bean products, oil, meat, aquatic products, vegetables, etc, all ten categories of food, analyzing their demand price elasticity; finally, exploring influence degree of the different kinds of food price change on urban residents living standards, and put forward some corresponding policy recommendations.Based on the analysis of living level and food consumption of urban residents in Jiangsu province, we can find that since1993the Engel coefficient has significant downward trend with a slight fluctuation in recent years, which agrees with the Engel’s law, and it means the living standards of urban residents has highly improved. We also find that significant changes have taken place in the consumption structure. The proportion of the expenditure of meat and poultry products, vegetables, aquatic products, milk and milk products have increased considerably. The study also find that the price rise of vegetables, grains, dried beans and milk products, meat and poultry and products is bigger than that of aquatic products, eggs and oil. Empirical analysis found that the price elasticity of the grain, oil, meat and poultry, eggs and aquatic products is smaller, and these five foods have obvious impact on residents living standards. By contrast, the price elasticity of dried beans and products, vegetables, spices, sugar and milk and products can’t be caculated by the model, and their impact on residents living standard is smaller. Finally put forward some corresponding policy recommendations such as adjust the agricultural policies, strengthen the supervision of some food prices, and improve the social security mechanism that related to food prices, etc.