Household's Food and Beverage Expenditure Patterns

Abstract

We examined household's food expenditures in this study. The empirical work outlined here used quarterly data from 2003 Q1 to 2010 Q3. All variables are in log form and were obtained from the Korea National Statistical Office. The food items included cereals, dairy products, fruits, meat, vegetables, and alcoholic beverages. We applied the ordinary least squares method to a model consisting of household income and seasonal dummies. This is because household expenditures are ordinarily a function of income and have seasonal characteristics. The household's food consumption patterns also reflect the prevailing social and environmental circumstances. This study showed that the income coefficients of cereals, meat, dairy products, and alcoholic beverages tend to increase in the long-run, whereas those of vegetables and fruits decreased. The results also revealed that consumption of alcoholic beverages and meat was greatly affected by household income fluctuations, whereas those of vegetables and dairy products were not sensitive to income. The impulse response functions indicated that expenditures not only increased slowly before peaking one to eight quarters after the income shock but declined very slowly to pre-shock levels. The response of dairy products at the twelfth step was three times as large as that of the first step.