Declining Nutrient Intake in a Growing China: Does Household Heterogeneity Matter?

This paper uses Chinese household data for 1989-2009 to explain why mean nutrient intake has declined despite economic growth. We focus on household heterogeneity in nutrient intake response to increases in household income allowing for its endogeneity. A quantile instrumental-variable fixed-effects panel estimation shows that rising income tends to reduce inequality in macronutrient intake in both urban and rural areas in 2004-2009. This is driven by increases in nutrient intake for the urban nutrient poor and falls in nutrient intake for the rural nutrient non-poor. On the other hand, fluctuations in prices of meat, eggs and oil increase nutrition poverty.