Changes in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption over Time and across Regions in China: A Difference-in-Differences Analysis with Quantile Regression

Recently, there has been considerable interest in estimating food demand structure in China due to its huge market for food products. Previous literature has focused on the primary food products such as grains and meats, but studies on fruits and vegetables are limited. To fulfill this gap, this paper investigates the changes of fruit and vegetable consumption in Chinese urban households between 1993 and 2001. In this study, we use the difference-in-differences method with quantile regression to demonstrate how these changes of fruit and vegetable consumption over time may differ across regions. Additionally, how these changes may differ over the entire distribution. Using household survey data from 1993 and 2001 of three selected provinces, our results show that fruit consumption of Chinese urban households increased from 1993 to 2001 for households in the central and southern parts of China. Additionally, the magnitudes of the increasing trends differ across the entire distribution. In contrast, significant decreases of vegetable consumption are found, and results are robust across regions. However, the disparities of vegetable consumption across regions are not significant.