Household Consumption Distribution in Rural China: A Consistent Two-Step Estimation

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• 作者：Tao Tan ; Yanyuan Zhang ; Bo Wen ; Xinwen Zhang and Jintao Zhan
• 刊名：Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：March 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：65
• 期：1
• 页码：119-133
• 全文大小：118K
• ISSN：1744-7976

文摘

As China continues to experience rapid urbanization, understanding the distribution of rural household consumption presents important policy implications. We take a sample of 15,606 households from the National Rural Fixed Observation Point Survey conducted by China's Ministry of Agriculture in 2010. A consistent two-step estimation based on the quadratic almost ideal demand system model is used to assess the distribution of living expenses across eight categories of goods and services. Results show that the price elasticity of food, clothing, and transportation and communication is relatively low, whereas that of durable goods, fuel, health and medicine, culture and education, and others is high. Demographic and regional variables also considerably affect living expenses. Our conclusions can serve as significant reference for evaluating changes in consumption structure and farmers’ welfare during the course of modernization in China. This type of analysis may also be conducted in other developing countries in general.