Engel's law is known to be extraordinarily consistent across time and space. Accordingly, it has been widely used to determine poverty. However, also among the poorest, a certain amount of non food spending is necessary. To substantiate the distinction between necessities and luxuries, already...

This paper develops a conceptual framework that can explain why economic development goes along with increases in body weight and obesity rates. We first introduce the concept of novelty consumption, which refers to an increase in food availability due to trade or innovation. Then we study how...

The thesis consists of a summary and four papers, concerned with food consumption, behavior associated with overconsumption of food and analysis of the economic policy reforms designed to improve health. <p> Paper [I] estimates a hedonic price model on breakfast cereal, crisp bread and potato...</p>

This paper examines inequality and welfare in food consumption expenditure in Pakistan. The indices are derived on the basis of Sen’s welfare function by employing HIES, 2005-06. The empirical results show that inequality and welfare varied widely in urban and rural areas. It can be seen that...

This paper offers estimates of the underreporting of income by self-employed workers using the Spanishhousehold surveys over the period 2006-2009. We use the well-known model by Pissarides and Weber (1989)but extending its interpretation for admitting also the (lower) concealment of income by...

This paper estimates the strength and heterogeneity across households in state dependence associated with breakfast cereal consumption, where positive state dependence implies habit persistence and negative state dependence implies variety-seeking in consumption. The analysis relies on a...

This paper estimates the strength and heterogeneity across households in state dependence associated with breakfast cereal consumption, where positive state dependence implies habit persistence and negative state dependence implies variety-seeking in consumption. The analysis relies on a...

An organic label offers a market signal for producers of organic food products. In Western economies, the label has gained high recognition, but organic food still represents a small part of total food consumption, which raises questions about the label's efficacy. By considering organic labels...