Diets, Nutrition, and Poverty - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 335

The caste affiliations (SCs and Others relative to STs) have significant positive effects,
but the coefficients are negligibly small. Households with adult males and females pos-
sessing above middle schooling have lower protein demands than those with lower edu-
cational attainments. Of some significance is the fact that the effect of adult males with
above middle schooling is much lower than that of adult females. There is a positive shift
of the protein demand curve over the period 1993-2004, implying a residual positive
effect.27
Fats
Beginning with the food-price effects, cereal, milk/milk products/ghee/butter,
Vanaspati oil prices have negative effects; whereas prices of sugar, eggs, meat/poultry/
fish, pulses/nuts/dryfruits, vegetables and fruits have positive effects. The elasticity of
expenditure is significantly positive and large. Most household characteristics other
than the number of adult females have significant effects, but the magnitudes are neg-
ligible. Over and above these effects, there is a downward shift of the fat demand curve,
due to factors other than those specified in the demand function over time.28
Urban India
Calories
Prices of cereals, pulses/nuts/others, inferior cereals and fruits and vegetables have neg-
ative but small effects (in absolute value), whereas prices of milk/milk products/ghee/
butter, Vanaspati-oil, sugar and eggs have positive effects. The expenditure elasticity is
positive. Excluding the caste variables, all other household characteristics have signifi-
cant but negligible effects. As in rural India, the demand function shifted downward
over time, presumably because of less strenuous activity patterns and more sedentary
life-styles, among other time-related factors.
Protein
Prices of cereals, inferior cereals, meat/fish/poultry, fruits and vegetables have negative
coefficients, whereas prices for milk/milk products/ghee/butter, sugar, eggs, and pulses
have positive coefficients. The expenditure elasticity is positive and high. Except for SCs
(with a small positive coefficient), all other household variables have significant coef-
ficients but negligible in value. As in the case of rural India, there is a positive shift in the
demand curve.
Fats
Cereal, inferior cereal, milk/milk product/ghee/butter prices have negative coefficients
whereas those of Vanaspati oil, sugar, eggs, meat/fish/poultry, pulses, and vegetables have
positive coefficients. The expenditure elasticity is high. All household variables, with the
exception of SCs, have significant effects but negligible in value. SCs demand more fats
relative to STs. As in rural India, the demand function shifted downward over 1993-2004.