Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP10096
Authors: Rachel Griffith; Martin O'Connell; Kate Smith
Abstract: Over the Great Recession real wages stagnated and unemployment increased. Concurrently, food prices rose sharply, outstripping growth in food expenditure, and leading to a reduction in calories purchased. This has led to concern about rising food poverty. We study British households to assess how they adjusted to changes in the economic environment. We show they switched to cheaper calories; implying food consumption was smoother than expenditure. We use longitudinal data to quantify the way households lowered their per calorie spending, and show they done this in part by increasing shopping effort, and without lowering the nutritional quality of their groceries.
Keywords: nutrition; opportunity cost of time; shopping behaviour
JEL Codes: D12; I31
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| increased shopping effort (D12) | reduction in price per calorie (D41) |
| changes in nutritional composition (L66) | reduction in price per calorie (D41) |
| increased shopping effort (D12) | changes in nutritional composition (L66) |
| differential shopping behaviors (D16) | reduction in price per calorie (D41) |