Publication:
You Are What (and Where) You Eat: Capturing Food Away from Home in Welfare Measures

dc.contributor.author Farfan, Gabriela
dc.contributor.author Genoni, Maria Eugenia
dc.contributor.author Vakis, Renos
dc.date.accessioned 2015-06-01T22:28:27Z
dc.date.available 2015-06-01T22:28:27Z
dc.date.issued 2015-05
dc.description.abstract Consumption of food away from home is rapidly growing across the developing world. Surprisingly, the majority of household surveys around the world haven not kept up with its pace and still collect limited information on it. The implications for poverty and inequality measurement are far from clear, and the direction of the impact cannot be established a priori, since consumption of food away from home affects both food consumption and the poverty line. This paper exploits rich data on food away from home collected as part of the National Household Survey in Peru, shedding light to the extent to which welfare measures differ depending on whether they properly account for food away from home. Peru is a relevant context, with the average Peruvian household spending 28 percent of their food budget on food away from home by 2010. The analysis indicates that failure to account for the consumption of food away from home has important implications for poverty and inequality measures as well as the understanding of who the poor are. First, accounting for food away from home results in extreme poverty rates that are 18 percent higher and moderate poverty rates that are 16 percent lower. These results are also consistent, in fact more pronounced, with poverty gap and severity measures. Second, consumption inequality measured by the Gini coefficient decreases by 1.3 points when food away from home is included, a significant reduction. Finally, inclusion of food away from home results in a reclassification of households from poor to non-poor status and vice versa: 20 percent of the poor are different when the analysis includes consumption of food away from home. This effect is large enough that a standard poverty profile analysis results in significant differences between the poverty classification based on whether food away from home is included or not. The differences cover many dimensions, including demographics, education, and labor market characteristics. Taken together, the results indicate that a serious rethinking of how to deal with the consumption of food away from home in measuring well-being is urgently needed to properly estimate and understand poverty around the world. en
dc.identifier http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/05/24442714/eat-capturing-food-away-home-welfare-measures
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21987
dc.language English
dc.language.iso en_US
dc.publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
dc.relation.ispartofseries Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7257
dc.rights CC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holder World Bank
dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/
dc.subject REGIONAL POVERTY LINES
dc.subject LIVING STANDARDS
dc.subject POVERTY POVERTY
dc.subject FOOD NEEDS
dc.subject HOUSEHOLD SIZE
dc.subject HOUSEHOLD SURVEY
dc.subject POVERTY LINE
dc.subject IMPACT ON POVERTY
dc.subject ECONOMIC GROWTH
dc.subject FOOD CONSUMPTION PATTERNS
dc.subject FOOD CONSUMPTION
dc.subject INCOME
dc.subject POVERTY INDICES
dc.subject POVERTY RATES
dc.subject POVERTY ESTIMATES
dc.subject NATIONAL POVERTY LINE
dc.subject CONSUMPTION DATA
dc.subject DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
dc.subject HOUSING
dc.subject NATIONAL POVERTY
dc.subject EXTREME POVERTY LINE
dc.subject INEQUALITY REDUCTION
dc.subject NON-FOOD ITEMS
dc.subject PER-CAPITA INCOME
dc.subject FOOD CONSUMPTION DATA
dc.subject SOCIAL PROGRAMS
dc.subject FOOD ENERGY
dc.subject MEASURES
dc.subject FOOD ENERGY INTAKE
dc.subject WELFARE INDICATOR
dc.subject REGION
dc.subject POVERTY REDUCTION
dc.subject PREPARED FOODS
dc.subject CONSUMPTION DISTRIBUTION
dc.subject REGIONAL POVERTY
dc.subject FOOD BASKET
dc.subject DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
dc.subject HOUSEHOLD HEAD
dc.subject POOR HOUSEHOLD
dc.subject POVERTY INDEXES
dc.subject POVERTY GAP
dc.subject GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS
dc.subject LIVING STANDARDS MEASUREMENT
dc.subject STANDARD ERRORS
dc.subject NUTRITION NEEDS
dc.subject HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION
dc.subject HOUSEHOLD INCOME
dc.subject POVERTY STATUS
dc.subject POOR INDIVIDUALS
dc.subject HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS
dc.subject FOOD EXPENDITURES
dc.subject ESCAPE’ POVERTY
dc.subject CALORIE INTAKE
dc.subject WELFARE INDICATORS
dc.subject POVERTY PROFILES
dc.subject CHANGES IN POVERTY
dc.subject HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS
dc.subject CONSUMPTION LEVEL
dc.subject EXPENDITURE DATA
dc.subject POVERTY PROFILE
dc.subject FOOD ITEMS
dc.subject STREET FOODS
dc.subject RELATIVE POVERTY LINE
dc.subject CA
dc.subject DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH
dc.subject HOUSEHOLD LEVEL
dc.subject POVERTY LINES
dc.subject CONSUMPTION
dc.subject FOOD SECURITY
dc.subject UNDERSTANDING OF POVERTY
dc.subject POVERTY INDEX
dc.subject RUNNING WATER
dc.subject ACCESS TO FACILITIES
dc.subject REDUCTION IN POVERTY
dc.subject POVERTY MEASUREMENT
dc.subject BASIC NEEDS
dc.subject INDIVIDUAL POVERTY
dc.subject DEVELOPMENT ISSUES
dc.subject MEAN INCOME
dc.subject NON-FOOD NEEDS
dc.subject GEOGRAPHIC REGION
dc.subject CONSUMPTION MEASURE
dc.subject ABSOLUTE POVERTY
dc.subject HOUSEHOLD
dc.subject AGRICULTURE
dc.subject FOOD SHORTAGE
dc.subject RURAL
dc.subject PRICE INFORMATION
dc.subject NUTRITION
dc.subject HOUSEHOLD BUDGET
dc.subject FOOD
dc.subject POVERTY SEVERITY
dc.subject SCHOOL FEEDING
dc.subject POVERTY INDICATORS
dc.subject FOOD_CONSUMPTION
dc.subject POOR POPULATION
dc.subject FOOD BASKETS
dc.subject WELFARE MEASURES
dc.subject FOOD SHARE
dc.subject CALORIE CONTENT
dc.subject FOOD INTAKE
dc.subject REGIONS
dc.subject EXTREME POVERTY
dc.subject CONSUMPTION PATTERNS
dc.subject ACCESS TO SERVICES
dc.subject ABSOLUTE POVERTY LINE
dc.subject RURAL AREAS
dc.subject POVERTY
dc.subject BASIC NEEDS METHOD
dc.subject POOR POPULATIONS
dc.subject ABSOLUTE TERMS
dc.subject RESTAURANTS
dc.subject HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION
dc.subject MEAL
dc.subject NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITION
dc.subject HOUSEHOLD EXPENDITURES
dc.subject POLICY RESEARCH
dc.subject POVERTY RATE
dc.subject POOR
dc.subject WELFARE MEASURE
dc.subject INDIVIDUAL LEVEL
dc.subject OFFICIAL POVERTY
dc.subject FOODS
dc.subject EXPENDITURE DISTRIBUTION
dc.subject HOUSEHOLD EXPENDITURE
dc.subject FOOD ITEM
dc.subject COST OF FOOD
dc.subject DEMOGRAPHIC COMPOSITION
dc.subject POVERTY ANALYSIS
dc.subject INEQUALITY
dc.subject POOR HOUSEHOLDS
dc.title You Are What (and Where) You Eat en
dc.title.subtitle Capturing Food Away from Home in Welfare Measures en
dc.type Working Paper en
dc.type Document de travail fr
dc.type Documento de trabajo es
dspace.entity.type Publication
okr.associatedcontent https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/29169 Accepted journal manuscript
okr.date.disclosure 2015-05-05
okr.doctype Publications & Research
okr.doctype Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
okr.docurl http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/05/24442714/eat-capturing-food-away-home-welfare-measures
okr.globalpractice Poverty
okr.identifier.doi 10.1596/1813-9450-7257
okr.identifier.externaldocumentum 090224b082e42633_2_0
okr.identifier.internaldocumentum 24442714
okr.identifier.report WPS7257
okr.language.supported en
okr.pdfurl http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2015/05/05/090224b082e42633/2_0/Rendered/PDF/You0are0what0000in0welfare0measures.pdf en
okr.region.country Peru
okr.topic Industry :: Food & Beverage Industry
okr.topic Macroeconomics and Economic Growth :: Regional Economic Development
okr.topic Poverty Reduction :: Poverty Lines
okr.topic Poverty Reduction :: Rural Poverty Reduction
okr.unit Surveys and Methods Team, Development Research Group; and the Poverty Global Practice Group
relation.isAuthorOfPublication 67ecac67-506a-57af-bdc9-ce6115e18157
relation.isAuthorOfPublication df9fc562-f981-533f-9b03-cceeb91e5d9c
relation.isSeriesOfPublication 26e071dc-b0bf-409c-b982-df2970295c87
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