distinguish the effects of food availability and food prices on fat intakes of the chinese adults区分食品供应和食品价格的影响在中国成年人的脂肪摄入量.pdfVIP

Modern Economy, 2012, 3, 437-443 /10.4236/me.2012.34056 Published Online July 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/me) Distinguish the Effects of Food Availability and Food Prices on Fat Intakes of the Chinese Adults Hung-Hao Chang Department of Agricultural Economics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Chinese Taipei Email: hunghaochang@.tw Received April 3, 2012; revised April 21, 2012; accepted May 20, 2012 ABSTRACT Remarkable economic growth in China has resulted in a change in the diet behavior of adults. This paper examines how changing socio-demographic characteristics, local food availability, and food prices may affect the fat intake among Chinese adults as a result of the economic growth. This paper goes beyond existing studies on the similar topic by two fronts. Instead of using a simple cross-sectional survey, a longitudinal sample of 2242 adults aged 20 and above in 1997 and 2006 was constructed. In addition, we estimated a fat intake equation using the quantile regression model to inves- tigate the heterogeneous effects of the exogenous factors on the fat intake distribution. Results indicate that the fat in- take of Chinese adults has increased over time. In particular, the increase in food availability significantly affects the fat intake of the Chinese adults. Keywords: Fat Intake; Food Availability; Food Price; Quantile Regression Model; China 1. Introduction trition demand is both timely and crucial. The objective of this study is to underscore the extent to which food China has undergone tremendous economic growth over