Agricultural Economics Commons^™

A Food Demand Framework For International Food Security Assessment, John Beghin, Birgit Meade, Stacey Rosen

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

We present a parsimonious demand modeling approach developed for the annual USDA-ERS International Food Security Assessment, a large-scale prospective assessment focusing on chronic food insecurity in 76 countries. The approach incorporates price effects, food quality variation across income deciles, and consistent aggregation over income deciles and food qualities. The approach is based on a simple demand approach for four food categories. It relies on data on food availability, complemented by own-price and income elasticities and food price data. Beyond consistent aggregation, the framework exhibits desirable characteristics: food quality is increasing with income; price and income responses become less sensitive …