The Demand for Calories in Turkey

This research examines dynamic causal relationships between per capita calorie intake, per capita income and food prices using time series data for Turkey during 1965-2007. ARDL cointegration analysis yields an income elasticity of calorie intake of 0.22, while the food-price elasticity is insignificant. The results suggest that economic growth in Turkey has improved calorie intake; future income growth can alleviate further inadequate nutrition. This result confirms Engel’s law too. An augmented form of Granger causality analysis is conducted amongst the variables. The short-run causality testing reveals the existence of only one causality which is running from income to calorie intake. The post-sample variance decompositions indicate that income is the main cause of the increased calorie intake in the long-run. The estimated long-run model appears to have stable parameters.