Comparing Heterogeneous Consumption in US and Japanese Meat and Fish Demand

This article uses national, quarterly data to conduct an empirical analysis of pre-committed meat and fish demand by US and Japanese households using the Generalized Almost Ideal Demand System (GAIDS). US consumers are found to hold pre-committed demand for beef and pork, while Japanese consumers appear to possess significant pre-committed demand for beef and fish. This provides evidence to partly explain observed differences in Japanese and US consumer reactions to non-price and non-income effects in beef, pork, poultry, and fish. In addition, the first known empirical comparison of how the GAIDS and more traditional AIDS models assess meat and fish demand is offered with both in- and out-of-sample evaluations.