Income and food Engel curves in Rwanda: a household microdata analysis

Aimable Nsabimana,Yves Surry,Ranjula Bali Swain,Jean Chrysostome Ngabitsinze

doi:10.1186/s40100-020-00154-4

Abstract

Food insecurity and malnutrition are still major challenges for large proportions of households in Sub-Saharan Africa. The empirical literature on food demand, however, suggests mixed evidence on the roles of income and other socio-economic attributes on food demand. This study analyzes the food demand among households in Rwanda, based on nationally representative household expenditures and demographic (EICV4, 2013/14) survey data. The results show that poor households consume merely food containing higher carbohydrates and starches. Further, the study finds that the majority of rural households spend almost nothing on micronutrients from animal products, suggesting that effective targeted food policy interventions for poor and rural households may play an important role in reducing the incidence of malnutrition through improving food diets.

Highlights

Modeling consumer demand has been one of the most momentous trends in the consumer theory literature over the last couple of decades
This paper addresses the following two questions: How do changes in household income affect food consumption behavior in Rwanda? Is there any potential impact of urbanization on food consumption trends in the country? The extent to which households allocate their income between food and non-food items depends on household location, market prices, and income opportunities (Barrett et al 2001)
The results further reveal that unconditional expenditure elasticities tend to be relatively higher for rural than for urban households, an indication that in Rwanda, the rural areas tend to have poorer and more food-insecure households than urban areas

Summary

Introduction

Modeling consumer demand has been one of the most momentous trends in the consumer theory literature over the last couple of decades. We analyze separately parametric estimates of Nsabimana et al Agricultural and Food Economics (2020) 8:11 food Engel curve (FEC) expenditures for rural and urban households in the context of developing countries, with a focus on Rwanda. This is because, in low- and middleincome countries, there are still large numbers of rural households where for instance Asia and Africa account for 40 and 48% of rural households, respectively. It can be argued that household location (either rural or urban dwellers) can be considered as an influential factor to affect food expenditure decisions

Objectives

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Conclusion