The impact of nutritional awareness on food demand : a complete systems approach /
| Main Author: | |
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| Other Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1991.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | ProQuest, Abstract Link to OAKTrust copy |
| Abstract: | Nutrition and health issues are becoming increasingly important to American consumers. Food manufacturers have responded in part by increasing the emphasis on issues of nutrition and health in their promotional campaigns. Agricultural economists know little about the role that nutritional awareness plays in determining the demand for food. The purpose of this study is to better understand the role of nutritional awareness in food demand. A framework is presented in which the traditional utility theory is augmented to include nutritional information. The complete demand systems approach is then used to estimate the demand for 8 aggregate and 20 disaggregate food groups. Nutritional information is measured by four alternative methods in addition to a base case with no such information. The first method includes intercept shifters to allow for structural change. The three remaining approaches utilize indices to measure nutritional information. One of these indices counts the release of major articles relating to nutrition and health. This index is labeled as the Cronin-Shaw (C-S) index. Thus, this first index considers nutrition in a very broad context. The second index is based on the release of articles which discuss the possible linkage between cholesterol and coronary heart diseases. This index is labeled as the Brown-Schrader (B-S) index. This measure is specifically directed at cholesterol information. The final method of measuring nutritional information includes both of these indices. The impact that nutritional information has on food demand can involve many alternative forms. Measurement of this impact should, therefore, allow sufficient flexibility. Thus, for the index of cholesterol information, a polynomial distributed lag model is used. Results show that nutritional information has significant impacts on the demand for food. Meat items have the most elastic response to this information while fruits and vegetables show much less response. The failure to include measures of nutrition leads to increased serial correlation and an overstatement of the role of habit persistence. It is evident that alternative measures of nutrition awareness are necessary for demand studies. |
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| Item Description: | Typescript (photocopy). Vita. "Major subject: Agricultural Economics." |
| Physical Description: | x, 296 leaves : illustrations ; 29 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references. |