Explore the vast range of titles available.

All types of consumer expenditures ultimately vie for the same pool of limited resources—the consumer's discretionary income. Consequently, consumers' spending in a particular industry can be better understood in relation to their expenditures in others. Although marketers may believe that they are operating in distinct and unrelated industries, it is important to understand how consumers, with a given budget, make trade-offs between meeting different consumption needs. For example, how much would escalating gas prices affect consumer spending on food and apparel? Which industries would gain most in terms of extra consumer spending as a result of a tax rebate? Answers to these questions are also important from a public policy standpoint because they provide insights into how consumer welfare would be affected as consumers reallocate their consumption budget in response to environmental changes. This study proposes a structural demand model to approximate the household budget allocation decision, in which consumers are assumed to allocate a given budget across a full spectrum of consumption categories to maximize an underlying utility function. The authors illustrate the model using Consumer Expenditure Survey data from the United States, covering 31 consumption categories over 22 years. The calibrated model makes it possible to draw direct inferences about the trade-offs individual households make when they face budget constraints and how their relative preferences for different consumption categories vary across life stages and income levels. The study also demonstrates how the proposed model can be used in policy simulations to quantify the potential impacts on consumption patterns due to shifts in prices or discretionary income.

To assess household availability of NOVA food groups in nineteen European countries and to analyse the association between availability of ultra-processed foods and prevalence of obesity. Ecological, cross-sectional study. Europe. Estimates of ultra-processed foods calculated from national household budget surveys conducted between 1991 and 2008. Estimates of obesity prevalence obtained from national surveys undertaken near the budget survey time. Across the nineteen countries, median average household availability amounted to 33·9 % of total purchased dietary energy for unprocessed or minimally processed foods, 20·3 % for processed culinary ingredients, 19·6 % for processed foods and 26·4 % for ultra-processed foods. The average household availability of ultra-processed foods ranged from 10·2 % in Portugal and 13·4 % in Italy to 46·2 % in Germany and 50·4 % in the UK. A significant positive association was found between national household availability of ultra-processed foods and national prevalence of obesity among adults. After adjustment for national income, prevalence of physical inactivity, prevalence of smoking, measured or self-reported prevalence of obesity, and time lag between estimates on household food availability and obesity, each percentage point increase in the household availability of ultra-processed foods resulted in an increase of 0·25 percentage points in obesity prevalence. The study contributes to a growing literature showing that the consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with an increased risk of diet-related non-communicable diseases. Its findings reinforce the need for public policies and actions that promote consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods and make ultra-processed foods less available and affordable.

The high and rising household savings rate in China is not easily reconciled with the traditional explanations that emphasize life cycle factors, the precautionary saving motive, financial development, or habit formation. This paper proposes a new competitive saving motive: as the sex ratio rises, Chinese parents with a son raise their savings in a competitive manner in order to improve their son’s relative attractiveness for marriage. The pressure on savings spills over to other households. Both cross-regional and household-level evidence supports this hypothesis. This factor can potentially account for about half the actual increase in the household savings rate during 1990–2007.

The main aim of this study was to identify the food sources of energy and 28 nutrients from cereals and cereal products in the average Polish diet based on data from a nationally representative sample of the Polish population attending in 2016 Household Budget Survey (i.e., 36,886 households). The contribution of energy and nutrients from cereals and cereal products were compared with reference values. The detailded analysis included five main groups and nine sub-groups of cereal food category. Our findings indicated that cereals and cereal products contributed 30.4% of total dietary energy supply, providing a significant percentage of six nutrients to the average Polish diet (i.e., 64.1% of manganese, 51% of carbohydrates, 48.5% of dietary fibre, 34.1% of iron, 33.6% of folate, and 31.3% of copper). Supply at the level of 20–30% was observed for protein, thiamin, phosphorus and zinc, and at 10–20% for polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), sodium, potassium, calcium, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamin B6. For other nutrients i.e., total fat, saturated fatty acids (SFA), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), cholesterol, iodine, vitamins: A, D, B12, and C, the share of cereals and cereal products contribution was below 10%. Cereals and cereal products were the major food category in meeting the reference values for the Polish population in case of manganese, carbohydrates (approximately 100%), and sodium (50%). The reference values was reached at the level of 30–40% for dietary fibre, protein, iron, copper, zinc, phosphorus and thiamin, and 20–30% for energy, magnesium, folate, niacin, riboflavin, vitamins B6 and E. For such nutrients as total fat, SFA, and potassium, the fulfillment of the reference values amounted to 10–20%. Our results document the importance of cereals and cereal products in the Polish diet, which should be emphasized from a nutritional and health point of view.

To investigate the correlation between the consumption of refined carbohydrates and fats and the prevalence of obesity in the state capitals of Brazil. An ecological evaluation of obesity and dietary risk factors was carried out in twenty-six state capitals of Brazil. Analysis was based on the age-standardized prevalence of obesity (BMI >or= 30.0 kg/m2) among adults aged 20-59 years. Both intake and obesity prevalence were obtained from the last National Family Household Budget Survey (HBS). The survey was conducted from July 2002 to June 2003, based on a probabilistic national sample of 48 470 households. In each household, during seven consecutive days, all monetary and non-monetary expenses for food and beverages for family consumption were transformed into energy. The relative contribution of foods and food groups was expressed as the proportion (%) of total energy. Fruits and vegetables were also measured by the quantity bought in grams. Prevalence of obesity varied from 5.1 % to 13.6 % among women and from 5.2 % to 17.6 % among men. For women, there were statistically significant correlations between obesity and intake of sugar and soft drinks (rS = 0.60; P = 0.001), ready-to-eat meals (rS = 0.39; P = 0.05) and potatoes (rS = 0.40; P = 0.04). For men there were no such associations. Increasing intake of refined carbohydrates, mainly soft drinks, may play a role in the prevalence of obesity among women in Brazil. Effecting changes in family purchase patterns may be a strategy to reduce obesity.

Exponential growth bias is the pervasive tendency to linearize exponential functions when assessing them intuitively. We show that exponential growth bias can explain two stylized facts in household finance: the tendency to underestimate an interest rate given other loan terms, and the tendency to underestimate a future value given other investment terms. Bias matters empirically: More-biased households borrow more, save less, favor shorter maturities, and use and benefit more from financial advice, conditional on a rich set of household characteristics. There is little evidence that our measure of exponential growth bias merely proxies for broader financial sophistication.

Energy poverty is high up on national and European Union policy agendas. A number of possible indicators to measure the issue have been identified in the literature, but comparable data with European coverage is scarce. The EU Commission thus proposes four independent indicators on the “EU Energy Poverty Observatory” based on self-reported items from the pan-European surveys on income and living conditions (SILC) and household budgets (HBS). It is of increasing public interest to analyse social impacts of energy policies, and quantify energy poverty indicators also from modelling. This paper first shortly outlines how the expenditure-based indicators using HBS micro data may be directly linked to existing macroeconomic models through their defining variables (energy expenditure and income). As endogenous modelling based on micro data is difficult, the link may be country-specific elasticities. The main contribution of the paper is a systematic in-depth sensitivity analysis of the two indicators to changes in income and energy expenditure following varying patterns in the underlying distributions of the micro data. The results may be used by future soft links to models. The results display sometimes counterintuitive effects. We find that whether these indicators increase/decrease after a change of income or energy expenditure largely depends on the specific country-wise income and energy expenditure distribution between households on a micro-level. Due to their definition, the examined indicators are especially sensitive, when income changes alter the indicator threshold values, which in these cases are the median values in underlying distributions. We discuss these findings and relate them to several indicator shortcomings and potential remedies through changes in indicator definition.

I elicit causal effects of spousal observability and communication on financial choices of married individuals in the Philippines. When choices are private, men put money into their personal accounts. When choices are observable, men commit money to consumption for their own benefit. When required to communicate, men put money into their wives' account. These strong treatment effects on men, but not women, appear related more to control than to gender: men whose wives control household savings respond more strongly to the treatment and women whose husbands control savings exhibit the same response. Changes in information and communication interact with underlying control to produce mutable gender-specific outcomes.

To analyse the association between food store type and the consumption of ultra-processed products in Brazil. Data from the 2008-2009 Household Budget Survey involving a probabilistic sample of 55 970 Brazilian households. Food stores were grouped into nine categories. Foods and drinks were grouped according to characteristics of food processing. The contribution of each food store type to the total energy acquired from each food processing group, and according to quintiles of consumption of ultra-processed products, was estimated. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify a pattern of food store usage. Linear regression models were performed to estimate the relationship between the purchase pattern and the consumption of ultra-processed products. In line with their larger market share, supermarkets accounted for 59 % of total energy and participated most in acquisition for three food groups, with emphasis on ultra-processed products (60·4 % of energy). The participation of supermarkets in total purchase tended to increase in populations with higher consumption of ultra-processed products, while the participation of small markets and small producers tended to decrease. The purchase pattern characterized by use of traditional retail (street fairs and vendors, small markets, small farmers, butcheries) was associated with a smaller consumption of ultra-processed products. Food policies and interventions aiming to reduce the consumption of ultra-processed products should consider the influence of supermarkets on the consumption of these products. A purchase pattern based on traditional retail constitutes an important tool for promoting healthy eating in Brazil.

Background Limited access to improved sources of water is a worldwide apprehension, predominantly in lower-middle-income nations with limited infrastructure. Limited and unsafe drinking water contributes to poor health outcomes, mainly among children. To safeguard the health and well-being of the community as a whole, it is essential to have access to safe drinking water. In Somalia, rural households have more limited access to drinking water fetched from improved sources compared to those living in urban areas. This research intended to analyse access to better drinking water sources for households and associated determinants, utilizing the 2022 Somali Integrated Household Budget Survey (SIHBS) data. Method The research employed the SIHBS 2022 dataset, a nationally representative dataset. To provide a concise summary of the findings, descriptive statistics were performed. The relations between the explanatory and predictor variables were studied utilizing the Pearson chi-square test. In contrast, a multivariate logit regression model was utilised to determine whether risk factors are significantly related to the criterion variable (water sources). The study analyzed the SIHBS 2022 dataset, which contains 7212 sample households, for its representativeness. Results This study found that 77.1% of Somali households have access to better sources of drinking water. The gender of the head of household (AOR: 2.230, 95% CI: 2.005–2.472), education status of the family head (AOR: 2.938, 95% CI: 2.083–4.142), household size (AOR:1.472, 95% CI: 1.326–1.633), place of residence (AOR: 2.367, 95% CI: 2.095–2.675) as well as the region of the respondent (AOR: 1.903, 95%, CI: 1.368–2.645), were all statistically significant predictors associated to household’s access to better-quality sources of drinking water. Conclusion This article examined the determinants that impact access to potable water from better sources. While overall national access to better-quality water is good, a gap between urban and rural water access exists. To ensure that households headed by females, particularly in rural settings, have adequate access to water from improved sources, the government and its value development partners should develop policies to inform the community about the benefits of improved water sources, thereby reducing WASH-related health problems.