John Gibson
Why Does the Engel Method Work? Food Demand, Economies of Size and Household Survey Methods
University of Waikato
oxford bulletin economics statisticsvolume 64 issue 4 p 341359 engel method work food demand economies size household survey methods john gibson john gibson department economics university waikato private bag 3105 hamilton new zealand email email protected grateful ron bewley angus deaton les oxley peter phillips scott rozelle christopher scott jeffrey williams fred zimmerman anonymous referee helpful advice data research part world bank poverty assessment papua new guinea financial support governments australia tf032753 japan tf029460 new zealand tf033936 gratefully acknowledged views paper author attributed world banksearch papers author john gibson john gibson department economics university waikato private bag 3105 hamilton new zealand email email protected grateful ron bewley angus deaton les oxley peter phillips scott rozelle christopher scott jeffrey williams fred zimmerman anonymous referee helpful advice data research part world bank poverty assessment papua new guinea financial support governments australia tf032753 japan tf029460 new zealand tf033936 gratefully acknowledged views paper author attributed world banksearch papers author first published 16 october 2002 httpsdoiorg1011111468008400023citations 51 anand harris 1994 review empirical performance various welfare indicators conclude food share little merit overall welfare indicator respondent usually senior female especially food expenditures however certain items like alcohol tobacco senior male usually provided information principle asking respondent best informed answer questions regarding type consumption widely used recall surveys average food share 05 20 percent decrease per capita food expenditures isimplied perhaps coincidence two countries deaton paxsons sample least puzzling results britain france collect household expenditures using diary method countries gather data recall household two people makes average 25 nonfood purchases per fortnight household 10 people averages 50 nonfood purchases per fortnight result also found field survey described foods whose expenditures recalled respondents lowest compared expenditures reported diaries foods frequently purchased correlation significant p001 level alternative hypothesis recall errors reflect respondent fatigue supported significant association placement food questionnaire size recall error example intergenerational family head spouse parents parentsinlaw head children head spouses grandchildren head comprises 78 percent residents average household urban areas papua new guinea unit increase logarithm household size raises share residents part intergenerational family 14 percentage points rewriting ln xn1 ln x1 ln n clear ln xn ln n ln xn1 rodgers brown duncan 1993 report evidence errors survey responses independent either true values variable measured explanatory variables causal model values drawn afresh experiment values household size rounded nearest integer minimum constrained n 1 mean food budget share generated assumptions 050 standard deviation 016 means standard deviations generated x n wf variables match data collected field deaton parxon use iv deal random measurement errors ln xn might bias coefficient correlation ln xn ln n illiterates typically elderly sometimes family members recorded diaries behalf interviewers visited frequently usual roughly every second day recording also true unweighted data used recall sample ols coefficient household size 01000 iv coefficient 00928 diary sample ols coefficient 00061 iv coefficient 00237 size classes used give smoother estimates small sample size reason poverty rates calculated areas papua new guinea rather capital city methods based estimation system demand equations example see lancaster et al 1999 may involved many applied economists want estimate equivalence scale input modeling task read full textaboutpdf toolsrequest permissionexport citationadd favoritestrack citation shareshare give accessshare full text accessshare fulltext accessplease review terms conditions use check box share fulltext version articlei read accept wiley online library terms conditions useshareable linkuse link share fulltext version article friends colleagues learn morecopy url share linkshare onfacebooktwitterlinkedinredditwechat citing literature volume64 issue4september 2002pages 341359 relatedinformation