Demand analysis on food: effects of Bolsa Família on dairy consumption as a source of calcium.

Abstract

Bolsa Família is a conditional cash transfer program in Brazil, which aims to improve education, health and nutrition in poor households. Dairy products are also representative in terms of food expenses in Brazil besides being an important source of calcium. This paper aims to evaluate effects of Bolsa Família on the dairy products demand. Survey data from 55,700 households collected in 2008/2009 by the Brazilian Bureau of Statistics (IBGE) are used. The Heckman two-step method is applied for the estimation. The results suggested that Bolsa Família increases the probability of buying milk powder and unpasteurized milk. As for policy consideration, managing unpasteurized milk and other nutritional education procedures should be considered to improve health and nutrition for low income families.Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-06T03:31:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cnpgl2015PlanPolPublDemand.pdf: 225001 bytes, checksum: d644abf12e77df3d7456d7c9a29656cb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-04201