Empirical Analysis Of Chinese Households' Food Consumption Structure

Food consumption is the most basic and most important thing in consumption while consumption is one of the three main sources that boost the economic development.This paper compared expenditure level and expenditure structure between three regions;analyzed dining-out phenomenon and its impact on household food demand structure;analyzed households' food consumption structure based on QUAIDS model.The analysis shows that meat,vegetables and fruits are high expenditure food while the budget share of these two kinds differs through the three regions.Southeast area owns the highest budget share of meat(0.58)and the lowest budget share of vegetables and fruits(0.21),while northwest area acts reversely with lowest budget share of meat(0.36)and highest budget share of vegetables and fruits(0.37).Average number of dining-out,which is no negligible,accounts to 1/5~1/4 in total dining number.Besides,budget share of meat increases by 0.19% and budget share of vegetables and fruits decreases by 0.14% with one more Chinese fast food away from home every month.Expenditure elasticity values are higher than corresponding price elasticity values,which means the bigger effect of expenditure change on food demand than price change.Negative cross-price elasticity values reveal the value of households' food consumption on food diversity and nutritional balance.Area heterogeneity and influence of market fluctuation on household welfare should be considered in policy making and agricultural production.