Engel’s Law Around the World 150 Years Later

Richard Anker

Working Papers from Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Abstract: One of the most enduring relationships in economics is that proposed by Ernst Engel in 1857: “The poorer is a family, the greater is the proportion of the total outgo [family expenditures] which must be used for food. … The proportion of the outgo used for food, other things being equal is the best measure of the material standard of living of a population.” The 150th anniversary of Engel’s law passed in 2007. With this in mind, the present paper looks at the extent to which Engel’s law is relevant in today’s world by looking across countries at the relationship between the share of household expenditure spent on food and national income per capita. This working paper provides an empirical analysis of Engel’s law based on data for almost every country and territory in the world. This facilitates analysis of the relationship between the food share of household expenditure and national income per capita, especially how this differs by development level.

Keywords: History of economic thought; Economic history; Consumer economics; Consumption; Measurement and analysis of poverty; Household behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B31 B41 D12 E21 I32 N01 N30 P46 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-his and nep-hme
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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