A despesa familiar e os preços dos alimentos como determinantes do consumo alimentício no nordeste brasileiro

Abstract

Previous Brazilian food-consumption analyses using the ENDEF data have suffered from aggregated information, which may confuse regional price differences with differences in food habits, without considering family size. Consumption functions estimated for the Northeast only, separating metropolitan and rural areas, and based on individual observations, allow more reasonable estimates of how poor families respond to changes in income and prices. Such estimates are necessary for evaluating the gain in consumption due to food assistance programs, which is not measured directly. The poor are more responsive than was believed to income increases or transfers - therefore easier to help, provided assistance is goncentrated on the poorest. The tendency to improve diet quality even before consuming enough calories, is stronger in urban areas. Price responsiveness, which determines
the viability of subsidies, is concentrated on basic grains, especially rice.