________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1 Demand for the Food Diversity in Central and Eastern European Countries: an Evidence from Slovakia

We estimate demand for food diversity in Central and Eastern Europe. Food diversity is a proxy for the quality of a diet and it is one of the measures of households’ food and nutritional security status. Using data from the Slovak Household Budget Survey, we estimate the impact of household’s income and other socio-economic and demographic characteristics on the demand for food diversity by standard OLS. To deal with the endogeneity problem as some important variables affecting demand for food diversity such as health status, preferences, etc. are not observed, we also apply 2SLS estimation method. Households’ expenditures on purchase of assets serve as a suitable instrumental variable in the 2SLS estimation. We find that households’ demand for food diversity has been increasing since 2004 reflecting mainly rising incomes in Slovakia in that period. Recent economic crisis had a negative impact on diversity of food consumption of the Slovak households’. We also find that the estimated income elasticities are understated by OLS approach and are greater when the income endogeneity issue is addressed. Demand for food diversity is significantly higher for urban households than for households living in rural areas. Demand for food diversity is also affected by individual characteristics of the household’s head, such as education level, age or employment status as well as by the regional characteristics.