How can we better capture food away from Home? Lessons from India’s linking person-level meal and household-level food data

Despite acknowledged shortcomings, household consumption and expenditure surveys (HCES) are increasingly being used to proxy food consumption because they are relatively more available and affordable than surveys using more precise dietary assessment methods. One of the most common, significant sources of HCES measurement error is their under-estimation of food away from home (FAFH). In 2011, India’s National Survey Sample Organization introduced revisions in its HCES questionnaire that included replacing “cooked meals”—the single item in the food consumption module designed to capture FAFH at the household level—with five more detailed and explicitly FAFH sub-categories. The survey also contained a section with seven, household member-specific questions about meal patterns during the reference period and included three sources of meals away from home (MAFH) that overlapped three of the new FAFH categories.By providing a conceptual framework with which to organize and consider each household member’s meal pattern throughout the reference period, and breaking down the recalling (or estimating) process into household member-specific responses, we assume the MAFH approach makes the key respondent’s task less memory- and arithmetically-demanding, and thus more accurate than the FAFH household level approach. We use the MAFH estimates as a reference point, and approximate one portion of FAFH measurement error as the differences in MAFH and FAFH estimates. The MAFH estimates reveal marked heterogeneity in intra-household meal patterns, reflecting the complexity of the HCES’s key informant task of reporting household level data, and underscoring its importance as a source of measurement error.We find the household level-based estimates of FAFH increase from just 60.4% of the individual-based estimates in the round prior to the questionnaire modifications to 96.7% after the changes. We conclude that the MFAH-FAFH linked approach substantially reduced FAFH measurement error in India. The approach has wider applicability in global efforts to improve HCES.     

Separating what we eat from where: Measuring the effect of food away from home on diet quality

Many argue that food away from home (FAFH) is a contributing factor to the obesity epidemic, showing that body mass index and consumption of FAFH are positively correlated. However, correlation analyses using a simple regression approach, such as the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), do not prove that FAFH causes weight gain. We use a first-difference estimator to establish a causal relationship between FAFH and dietary intakes. Using dietary recall data from the 2003–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the 1994–1996 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals, we find that FAFH does indeed increase caloric intake and reduce diet quality, but that the effect is smaller than if estimated using OLS. Thus, models based on associations are likely biased upward, as much as 25% by our estimates.     

An experiment on cash and in-kind transfers with application to food assistance programs

The impact of providing food assistance in kind (via food, stamps, or restricted debit cards) vs. cash has long been a subject of debate. Prior efforts to causally identify the effects of the two types of transfers have been hindered by concerns over non-random selection into assistance programs, misreporting of program benefits, and identification of inframarginal households who, theoretically, should treat cash and in-kind transfers identically. This paper reports the results of an economic experiment designed to cleanly test some conceptual issues associated with in-kind vs. cash giving in a lunchroom meal setting. Given current debates about the healthiness of food assistance recipients’ diets, we also consider the impacts of placing restrictions on in-kind transfers that either prohibit soda purchases with the transfer or require the transfer be spent on fruits and vegetables. Overall, we find that, as theory predicts, in-kind transfers have the same effect on food expenditures as an unrestricted cash transfer for inframarginal consumers, and for extramarginal consumers, food expenditures are higher for in-kind than cash transfers. Participants also respond to the fruit and vegetable restriction as theory would predict. However, in contrast to the theoretical prediction, the soda restriction reduces soda expenditures for more than half the inframarginal consumers.     

Are SNAP benefits adequate? A geographical and food expenditure decomposition

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides resources to supplement household food expenditures in order to achieve a nutritious diet. Determining the amount of support required - or extent of food expenditure poverty -- entails comparing available resources for food to a nutrition-determined threshold. Clearly the value of the threshold will affect the degree of food expenditure poverty. If the threshold value is inaccurate, the calculated degree of poverty will be inaccurate. USDA uses a threshold for setting SNAP benefits that does not vary geographically or temporally, so consequently (food expenditure) poverty may be understated or overstated in different regions and time periods. This article compares food expenditure poverty estimates for SNAP participants when geographical differences in the threshold are ignored versus not ignored. In addition, the article decomposes household food expenditures into Food-Away-From-Home (FAFH), Food-at-Home (FAH), personal funded FAH, and SNAP funded FAH in order to assess the degree to which each of these contribute to reducing food expenditure poverty. The general findings are that all food expenditure poverty measures are worse when geographical differences are taken into account. In addition, the analysis shows that FAH expenditures, and in particular SNAP FAH expenditures, contribute the most to reducing food expenditure poverty in SNAP households. The policy implications are that food expenditure poverty is currently underestimated in the US by ignoring geographical differences in thresholds, but the food expenditure poverty would be even worse without SNAP benefits. Geographical adjustments to the national threshold could help reduce food expenditure poverty across regions.     

Impact of off-farm labor supply on food expenditures of the farm household

Farm households diversify their income sources by working off the farm. This is a risk management strategy that is used by farm households in both developed and developing countries. Income diversification via off-farm work is associated with higher incomes and food consumption. However, little is known about the association between off-farm work and farm household food expenditures. In an effort to bridge this gap, this study attempts to assess the impact of off-farm work decisions by the operator and/or the spouse on the food expenditures of the farm household. Using a nationwide farm household survey in the United States and new econometric method, we find that the decisions of the operator and/or the spouse to work off the farm are significantly interrelated (29%). However, these two decisions affect food expenditures in different ways. The operator’s off-farm work decision is positively related to food expenditures, while the spouse’s decision is negatively associated with expenditures on food by the farm household.     

Food-away-from-home plate waste in China: Preference for variety and quantity

China is observing a rapid increase of food-away-from-home (FAFH) plate waste along with economic growth. Food waste reduces food use efficiency, exerts pressure on environment and resources, and threatens national food security. This study analyzes the impact of consumers’ preference for variety and restaurants’ dish portions on FAFH plate waste using a survey data from 170 restaurants in Beijing and Lhasa. The primary findings are that higher food variety leads to less plate waste and bigger portion size results in more plate waste. We also observe that increases in consumers’ income lead to more plate waste. Moreover, the Chinese Face-culture plays a significant role on consumers’ plate waste. Serving dishes with suitable portions in restaurants should be incentivized to help reduce both the amount and rate of plate waste. Our results can suggest relevant policy tools to nudge people in forming sustainable consumption behavior and provide valuable implications for reducing food waste and improving food security in China.     

Food consumption in Mexico: demographic and economic effects

Disaggregated demand analysis is beginning to receive increased importance in food policies for developing countries. Using household data from the 1977 Mexican Income and Expenditure Household Survey, the authors estimate the income and demographic effects on expenditures for 9 aggregate food categories. In addition, they use a probit model to explore the effect of these variables on the purchase decision for 5 high protein supplying goods. The results indicate that demographic variables, as well as income, have important effects in determining food expenditures. The authors analyze these effects and indicate the role they might play in food policy programs such as PRONAL, the National Food Programme.     

Location,governance, and strategic determinants of japanese manufacturing investment in the united states

A firm's decision to manufacture abroad depends on location, governance, and strategic factors. Governance factors are firm-specific. In spite of this, most empirical studies of foreign direct investment (FDI) have been conducted at the industry level (making it impossible to look at firm-specific determinants), and only a handful have considered governance, location, and strategic factors simultaneously. This paper is the first large sample study of the determinants of foreign direct investment at the product and firm-level. It examines the impact of location and governance factors, and of four types of strategic interactions, on a Japanese firm's propensity to manufacture in the U.S. The results support the view that foreign direct investment is explained by location, governance, and strategic variables. Economies of scale and trade barriers encourage Japanese FDI in the U.S. The larger a Japanese firm's R & D expenditures, the greater the probability it will manufacture in the U.S., but this is not the case for advertising expenditures. Some strategic factors are also important: Japanese firms with medium domestic market shares have the highest propensity to invest in the U.S. There is evidence of follow-the-leader behavior between firms of rival enterprise groups, but none of ‘exchange-of-threat’ between American and Japanese firms. Japanese investors are also attracted by concentrated and high-growth U.S. industries.     

Salesforce entertainment activities

Sales managers need guidelines for controlling the entertainment costs incurred by their sales personnel. Because of the difficulty in measuring the payoff associated with particular entertainment costs, the decision of whether to spend or not to spend is, of necessity, somewhat subjective. One guide is to compare entertainment activities among different salesforces. A survey of over 1300 salespeople employed in a wide variety of jobs in a large number of industries revealed the extent of entertainment efforts in five areas: taking clients out for lunch, for an evening meal, for a drink, for leisure activities, and parties for clients.     

Trading off nutrition and education? A panel data analysis of the dissimilar welfare effects of Organic and Fairtrade standards

Millions of smallholder farmers in developing countries participate in different types of sustainability standards. A growing body of literature has analyzed the welfare effects, with mixed results. Yet, there are important knowledge gaps. First, most existing studies have looked at the effects of one standard in one country. When comparing between studies it is unclear whether dissimilar outcomes are the result of different standards or different local conditions. Second, most studies have used cross-section data, so that selectivity issues remain a challenge. Third, existing work has primarily analyzed effects in terms of purely economic indicators, such as prices and income, ignoring other dimensions of household welfare. We address these shortcomings using panel data from small-scale coffee producers in Uganda and comparing the effects of two of the most popular sustainability standards, namely Organic and Fairtrade. Welfare effects are analyzed in terms of household expenditures, child education, and nutrition. Results show that Organic and Fairtrade both have positive effects on total consumption expenditures. However, notable differences are observed in terms of the other outcomes. Organic contributes to improved nutrition but has no effect on education. For Fairtrade it is exactly the other way around. We explore the mechanisms behind these differences.     

The Dynamics of Homeownership: Eliminating the Gap Between African American and White Households

This article uses a sample of young renters from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and a continuous‐time econometric model to explore not only the initial tenure transition to first‐time homeownership, but also subsequent possible tenure transitions to a second owned home, back to rental tenure and, indirectly, to a second owned home from rental tenure. Once estimated, the predicted probabilities of these transitions are used to calculate the probability of homeownership at various times for households in the sample. These estimates are done separately for African Americans and whites for two different 11‐year time intervals, 1987–1997 and 1993–2003. A primary result is that if African American education, income, net wealth and savings behavior could be brought in line with that of white households the majority of the racial gap in homeownership could be eliminated in either time period.     

城乡收入差距与城镇化水平：收入差距来源的考察

随着中国经济的飞速发展,城镇化水平的不断提高,城乡居民收入也得到了较大的提高,但城乡收入差距却呈现出扩大的趋势。鉴于此,本文从理论层面就城乡各类收入差距与城镇化水平进行分析,还运用中国的省级面板数据就城乡各类收入差距对城乡收入差距的影响程度进行实证研究,以及运用中国的时间序列数据对城乡各类收入差距与城镇化水平的关系进行实证分析。本文的研究得出：城乡各类收入差距对城乡收入差距的影响程度不同,以及与城镇化水平的关系也不同,在制定和实施缩小城乡收入差距时,应有针对性的采取不同的政策方针。     

房地产三种评估价格的比较分析

简要的阐述了比准价格、收益价格、积算价格三种房地产评估价格的形成机理及理论依据，并从对一种观点的局限性分析出发，综合运用市场供求理论、均衡理论以及短边原则，对不同市场背景下三种估价方法得出的评估价格进行经济比较分析。     

Immigrants and Mortgage Delinquency

This article studies the effect of immigrant status on mortgage delinquency. Due to their different social and economic background, immigrant households may not integrate well into the host society, and therefore are more likely to be delinquent on mortgages than otherwise identical native‐born households. We test this hypothesis by comparing the mortgage delinquency rate between immigrant and native‐born households in the 2009 PSID (Panel Study of Income Dynamics) data, in which all the immigrant households have been in the United States for more than 10 years. We find that, after controlling for observables, those relatively recent immigrants who have been in the United States for 10 to 20 years have a higher mortgage delinquency rate than native‐born, while immigrants who have resided in the United States for more than 20 years are no different from native‐borns. In addition, there is no evidence that the second generation of immigrants is more likely to be delinquent than the third‐or‐higher generations. Our results are robust to potential sample‐selection bias and functional misspecifications.     

Performance differences in related and unrelated diversified firms

This paper investigates performance differences (in terms of ROA) between related and unrelated diversified firms. Two regression models of performance are estimated using a sample of 80 firms. Performance differences are associated with advertising expenditures, accounting determined risk, research and development expenditures and capital intensity. The models suggest that research and development expenditures are an important determinant in the performance advantage enjoyed by related diversified firms.     

Comparing consumer preferences for color and nutritional quality in maize: Application of a semi-double-bound logistic model on urban consumers in Kenya

Consumer preferences for white maize in East and Southern Africa concerns developers of maize biofortified with provitamin A carotenoids, since carotenoids impart a yellow or orange coloration. Urban consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for yellow maize was estimated, using a semi-double-bounded logistic model, based on a survey of 600 maize consumers in Nairobi, Kenya, at posho mills, kiosks and supermarkets. Consumers showed a strong preference for white maize. Only a minority would buy yellow maize at the same price as white maize, and fewer consumers in the posho mills (24%) and kiosks (19%) than in the supermarkets (34%) would do so. On average, consumers need a price discount of 37% to accept yellow maize. This discount was less at the posho mills (35%) and kiosks (37%) than in the supermarkets (48%). Most respondents (76%) were aware of the existence of fortified meal and the generally showed an interest. The average premium for fortified maize was much less than the discount for yellow: 5.9% for those aware and 7.4% for those unaware. Consumer preferences were influenced by socioeconomic factors such as gender, education, income and ethnic background. Women have a stronger preference for both white maize and fortified maize than men, and consumers with more education have a stronger preference for white. Income decreases the WTP for yellow maize as well as the price elasticity, but increases the WTP for fortified maize. Consumers originating from Western Kenya have a lower preference for white, while those from Central Kenya had a stronger preference for fortified maize.     

Measuring the Union–Nonunion Wage Gap Using Propensity Score Matching

This paper examines the union wage effect among private sector wage and salary workers using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data. We estimate the average union premium by utilizing semi (non) parametric matching techniques, as well as by linear regression model. Our analysis reveals: (1) conditioning linearly on covariates understates the union wage effect. In addition, matching results under the alternative support conditions indicate that selection on unobservables has at most a modest impact on average. (2) Log wage estimations lead to an overstatement of the union wage effect. Solving these problems yields the union membership premium as 21.5 percent.     

Mortgage Lending, Sample Selection and Default

Traditional models of mortgage default suffer from sample-selection bias because they do not control for the loan approval process. This paper estimates a sample-selection-corrected default model using the 1990 Boston Federal Reserve loan application sample and the 1992 Federal Housing Authority (FHA) foreclosure sample. A single-equation FHA default model appears to suffer from substantial selection bias, but the bias primarily arises from the omission of credit history and other variables that are only in the application sample. Therefore, default models that contain detailed information on applicants may not suffer from substantial selection bias. Finally, a test for prejudice-based discrimination is developed and conducted, but the findings are inconclusive.     

Japan׳s prefectural digital divide: A multivariate and spatial analysis

This study of the digital divide within Japan utilizes data from the country׳s 47 prefectures for multivariate and spatial analysis of distributions of information and communication technology (ICT) variables. The paper constructs an exploratory conceptual model of technology utilization and expenditures in Japan, induced from prior literature. Ten dependent ICT utilization and expenditure factors are posited to be related to 12 independent demographic, economic, infrastructure, education, innovation and openness factors. The relationship of the independent to dependent factors is moderated by analysis of spatial patterns of technology utilization to examine proximities and reduce spatial bias. Based on the model, a multivariate analysis identifies correlates of the nation׳s digital divide, including patents registered by Japanese citizens, newspaper circulation, students and pupils per capita, household expenditures on education, rural/urban status, and Japan׳s aged population structure which has wide generational gaps. Spatial clusters and outliers of ICTs in prefectures are analyzed, with attention to their policy impacts. Findings suggest modifications to the conceptual model. Implications of findings for the country׳s official national technology planning policies are considered and recommendations made to expand them.     

Supply chain risk, simulation, and vendor selection

This paper considers three types of risk evaluation models within supply chains: chance constrained programming (CCP), data envelopment analysis (DEA), and multi-objective programming (MOP) models. Various risks are modeled in the form of probability and simulation of specific probability distribution in risk-embedded attributes is conducted in these three types of risk evaluation models. We model a supply chain consisting of three levels and use simulated data with representative distributions. Results from three models as well as simulation models are compared and analysis is conducted. The results show that the proposed approach allows decision makers to perform trade-off analysis among expected costs, quality acceptance levels, and on-time delivery distributions. It also provides alternative tools to evaluate and improve supplier selection decisions in an uncertain supply chain environment.