Trade, tastes and Nutrition in India

David Guy Atkin ()

Working Papers from Economic Growth Center, Yale University

Abstract: This paper introduces habit formation into an otherwise standard model of international trade. Household tastes evolve over time to favor foods consumed as a child. The opening of trade causes preferred goods to rise in price, as these were relatively inexpensive in autarky. Neglecting the correlation between tastes and agro-climatic endowments overstates the short-run nutritional gains from agricultural trade liberalization and masks potential caloric losses for laborers. I examine the predictions of this model of trade with habit formation using household survey data from India, both by looking across Indian regions and by examining the consumption patterns of inter-state migrants.

Keywords: international trade; habit formation; India; Tastes; nutrition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O10 O12 Q17 F10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cwa, nep-dev and nep-int
Date: 2010-04
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Working Paper: Trade, Tastes and Nutrition in India (2010)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egc:wpaper:986

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