The main area of focus in this paper is variation across regions and over time in the U.S. as estimated by different food price data sets. There are a variety of potential sources for food price data, but it is important to compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of the data sources in...

A two-step model with sample selection is applied to panel data of U.S. households to estimate at-home demand for fluid milk and cheese, incorporating advertising expenditures. The model consistently accounts for sample-selection bias, unobserved household heterogeneity, and temporal...

This study develops a unique double-hurdle model of demand for composite food commodities which endogenizes unit values. The model structure allows us to account for the inability to observe such values for non-purchasing households and simultaneously adjusts for quality demand effects reflected...

As food and energy commodity prices surged in late 2007 and most of 2008, there was a renewed interest in updated estimates of the impact of these increases on retail food prices. The drop in commodity prices (September 2008- March 2009) leads to the same set of questions in the opposite...

This study develops a procedure to estimate income distribution effects on market demand. The proposed procedure contains two steps: estimation of the underlying income distribution and estimation of market demand. Empirical findings show that the income distribution effect is a significant...

This study develops an empirical framework that can be used to estimate quality-adjusted price elasticities from cross-sectional data, which are theoretically consistent and comparable to elasticities from time-series data. The new approach shows the importance of properly adjusting for quality...

The extent to which cost changes pass through a vertically organized production process depends on the value added by each producer in the chain as well as a number of other organizational and marketing factors at each stage of production. Using 36 years of monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics...

There is a common perception that healthy food costs more than less healthy food. In this study we use a demand model for diet quality, rather than the quantity of food. Since in our data, total daily cost and diet quality are both calculated from the foods chosen, we account for the fact that...