TY - JOUR
T1 - Nutrient Demand in Food Away from Home
AU - Richards, Timothy J.
AU - Mancino, Lisa
AU - Nganje, William
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2012 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston 2012.
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Food away from home (FAFH) and, specifically fast food, has been targeted by academics and public policy officials alike as a major contributor to the obesity epidemic. Criticized as high in energy, fat and sugars, the implication is that consumers demand the combination of nutrients in FAFH in excess. If market-based policies intended to correct the perceived market failure in nutrient demand are to be successful, information on nutrient elasticities is required. Moreover, co-dependent relationships between nutrient intake and bioeconomic outcomes - obesity, physical activity and health status - are found to be important in the public health literature, but are not typically included in econometric studies of FAFH demand. Nutrients, however, do not have market prices. This study derives a set of implicit nutrient prices and estimates the elasticities of demand for nutrients in FAFH that takes into account the endogeneity of bioeconomic outcomes. Our estimation results show that fat is the only macro-nutrient that is elastic in demand, and all cross-price elasticities are small, so nutrient-based price policies may indeed be effective in modifying FAFH choices. Simulation results confirm this hypothesis, and also support the use of policies that subsidize positive health outcomes.
AB - Food away from home (FAFH) and, specifically fast food, has been targeted by academics and public policy officials alike as a major contributor to the obesity epidemic. Criticized as high in energy, fat and sugars, the implication is that consumers demand the combination of nutrients in FAFH in excess. If market-based policies intended to correct the perceived market failure in nutrient demand are to be successful, information on nutrient elasticities is required. Moreover, co-dependent relationships between nutrient intake and bioeconomic outcomes - obesity, physical activity and health status - are found to be important in the public health literature, but are not typically included in econometric studies of FAFH demand. Nutrients, however, do not have market prices. This study derives a set of implicit nutrient prices and estimates the elasticities of demand for nutrients in FAFH that takes into account the endogeneity of bioeconomic outcomes. Our estimation results show that fat is the only macro-nutrient that is elastic in demand, and all cross-price elasticities are small, so nutrient-based price policies may indeed be effective in modifying FAFH choices. Simulation results confirm this hypothesis, and also support the use of policies that subsidize positive health outcomes.
KW - food away from home
KW - food policy
KW - logit model
KW - nutrient demand
KW - taxation
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U2 - 10.1515/1558-9544.1246
DO - 10.1515/1558-9544.1246
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84962495316
SN - 2194-6191
VL - 15
JO - Forum for Health Economics and Policy
JF - Forum for Health Economics and Policy
IS - 1
ER -