Household composition and food expenditures: a cross-country comparison

In the analysis of food expenditures, use of household member counts as an explanatory variable assumes each member has the same marginal food expenditure impact. In our analysis of Latin American food expenditures we reject this assumption via the estimation of endogenously determined adult equivalence scales that vary by household member gender and age. A series of hypothesis tests indicate significant differences not only in the male versus female equivalence scales but also across country. With the use of such equivalence scales in the definition of per capita expenditures we find significant differences in the distributions implying substantially different poverty rankings.