The issue of weak separability in demand systems estimation: an application to the demand of meat in Brazil

Abstract

Weak separability is a frequently maintained hypothesis in demand analysis and it’s rarely tested. This paper tested the restrictions of weak separability in a meat demand system in Brazil, using microdata from POF 2008-09. Results showed that consumers do not distinguishmeats by animal type or quality and that an estimate of demand for meats without using price and expenditure of other foods incurs in omission of relevant variables, impacting cross price elasticities.