Will Fat Taxes Cause Americans to Become Fatter? Some Evidence from US Meats

Price and income elasticities of fat from meats are estimated by decomposing composite demand for meat into the produ ct of total calories, the fraction of calories eat as fat, and a residual measure of quality. This demand-characteristic system provides estimates of the impact of prices and income on the fraction of calories eaten as fat as well as their affect on the total consumption of fat. Empirical estimates of the comp ensated own-price elasticities of meats suggest that a fat tax designed to raise revenues to finance nutritional education efforts may increase the total consumption of fat.Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

CONSISTENT AGGREGATION IN FOOD DEMAND SYSTEMS

Two aggregation schemes for food demand systems are tested for consistency with the Generalized Composite Commodity Theorem (GCCT). One scheme is based on the standard CES classification of food expenditures. The second scheme is based on the Food Guide Pyramid. Evidence is found that both schemes are consistent with the GCCT.Demand and Price Analysis,

THE GENERALIZED COMPOSITE COMMODITY THEOREM AND FOOD DEMAND ESTIMATION

This paper reports tests of aggregation over consumer food products and estimates of aggregate food demand elasticities. Evidence that food demand variables follow unit root processes leads us to build on and simplify tests of the Generalized Composite Commodity Theorem found in the literature. We compute food demand elasticities using cointegration applied to a convenient but nonlinear functional form. Estimates are based on consumer reported expenditure data rather than commercial disappearance data.Demand and Price Analysis,

EVALUATING THE EFFECT OF COMMODITY DONATION PROGRAMS USING THE TRUNCATED NORMAL DISTRIBUTION

The magnitude of both the displacement of commercial sales and the increase in consumption associated with a commodity distribution program are characterized using the truncated normal distribution. This method is easier to implement and requires less data than previous methods. It is applied to data from the 1986 Survey of TEFAP Recipients and is quite accurate

THE EFFECT OF AN ELECTRONIC BENEFIT TRANSFER (EBT) SYSTEM ON FOOD EXPENDITURE OF FOOD STAMP RECIPIENTS: EVIDENCE FROM THE MARYLAND STATEWIDE IMPLEMENTATION

Survey data before and after the statewide implementation of an Electronic Benefit Transfer system in Maryland is used to estimate the impact of this system on net food expenditure out of Food Stamp Program (FSP) benefits and income. A reduction in the net food expenditure from FSP benefits relative to income reduces the FSP's ability to target food expenditure

Price Elasticities of Demand for Food Away From Home (FAFH)

Using a procedure by Deaton (1990) and data from a cross-sectional survey by CREST price elasticities of demand for three types of FAFH facilities are computed

Maximizing the Expected Food Stamp Program Participation from Informational Outreach Programs

GAO (1988) reports that approximately one-half of the eligible nonparticipants did not think they were eligible nonparticipants did not think they were eligible for the Food Stamp Program (FSP). These nonparticipants are denoted as "outreach households". Past studies (GAO, 1990. Coe) imply that programs designed to inform households of their eligibility (informational outreach programs) be directed at groups with the greatest number of outreach households. This paper illustrates that the economically efficient use of informational outreach expenditures may require concentrating outreach efforts on groups of households with fewer but more responsive uninformed nonparticipants