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Sociodemographic Determinants
Abstract
Most research reports of food-related behavior include at least a cursory description of the respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics. Many include some examination of the relationship between the respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics and their food-related behavior. This apparent concentration on sociodemographic characteristics to account for the observed variation in food-related behavior seems explained best by the relative ease in measuring these variables. Even though sociodemographic variables are often measured, the theoretical arguments for why these variables should be related to various measures of food-related behavior often are not given. This chapter differs from the others in this monograph in that the discussion of sociodemographic determinants focuses on the reasons why these characteristics might be related to food-related behavior and on the findings of studies rather than on the conceptualization and measurement of the variables. This approach is not meant to imply that there is not controversy surrounding the measurement of income or ethnicity, for example, but when compared to concepts like preferences, attitudes, or beliefs, the measurement of sociodemographic variables is rather straightforward. The sociodemographic determinants examined in this chapter include income, household size, education, gender, age, wife’s employment status, and ethnicity.
This study examines income and food consumption patterns within Chinese households to test the assumptions and predictions of two competing models of consumer demand, the Neo-Classical unitary model and a class of bargaining models. Four standard tests of the Neo-Classical model are conducted, as well as two tests of bargaining models recently developed by Chiappori and Browning (19989.
Chiappori , P-A and
Browning , M . 1998. Efficient intra-household allocations: a general characterization and empirical tests. Econometrica, 66: 1241–78. View all references). Similar to many other studies, each of the assumptions and predictions of the Neo-Classical unitary model is rejected by the data. Alternatively, there is evidence that the bargaining models more accurately describe households’ decision-making processes. The data suggest that multiple individuals within the household influence decisions, instead of households acting as one decision-making unit.
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