The Income Elasticities of Food, Calories, and Nutrients in China: A Meta-Analysis

Estimating food- and nutrient-income elasticities is important for making food and nutrition policies to combat malnutrition. There are many studies that have estimated the relationship between income growth and food/nutrient demand in China, but the results are highly heterogeneous. We conducted a meta-analysis in China to systematically review the elasticity of food, calories, and other nutrients to income. We considered a meta-sample using a collection of 64 primary studies covering 1537 food-income elasticities, 153 nutrient-income elasticities, and 147 calorie-income elasticity estimates. There are significant differences in the size of the income elasticities across food and nutrient groups. We found that food- and calorie-income elasticity appear to decline as per capita income increases, except for vitamin and aquatic products. We also found a publication bias for food and calories, and in particular, the study attributes may be important, as they can influence estimates. Given the limited study on nutrient-income elasticity, understanding the impact of income changes on nutrient intake is an important direction worthy of further research.