Analysis of inequality in the consumption of foodstuffs and beverages - the example of the Czech Republic

Zdeňka Malá and Gabriela Červená
Additional contact information
Zdeňka Malá: Katedra ekonomiky, Provozně ekonomická fakulta, Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Praha 6, Česká republika
Gabriela Červená: Katedra ekonomiky, Provozně ekonomická fakulta, Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Praha 6, Česká republika

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 2012, vol. 60, issue 4, 255-266

Abstract: The report focuses on the assessment of the rate of inequality in the consumption of foodstuffs and beverages by households in the Czech Republic. It analyzes the said inequality on the basis of data from the Family Account Statistics for the period of 2001-2009. The main methodical tools for the performed analysis are the quantification of the Gini coefficient of natural consumption and the consumption expenditures for foodstuffs and beverages of Czech households, the construction, quantification and verification of consumption functions. The obtained results evidence a greater balance in the consumption of foodstuffs and beverages than which is shown by the allocation of the overall expenditures or income of Czech households. At the same time, the said inequality in the consumption of foodstuffs and beverages is characterized by a slightly declining tendency in time. With regard to individual categories of foodstuffs and beverages, the greatest inequality can be defined in the case of dispensable commodities, which are consumed by quantitatively wealthier strata of the population, who are simultaneously willing to pay a higher price for them. Thus, for a number of commodities, we can note the greater quality of foodstuffs and beverages consumed by higher income groups. These commodities may primarily be characterized as having a greater price elasticity. On the other hand, there are foodstuffs in the case of which consumers react more flexibly to changes in income, but whose consumption is relatively stable. Therefore, inequality of consumption is not unequivocally associated with income elasticity, but rather with price elasticity.

Keywords: inequality; expenditures; consumption; consumption functions; Gini coefficient; foodstuffs; beverages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://acta.mendelu.cz/doi/10.11118/actaun201260040255.html (text/html)
http://acta.mendelu.cz/doi/10.11118/actaun201260040255.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mup:actaun:actaun_2012060040255

DOI: 10.11118/actaun201260040255

Access Statistics for this article

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis is currently edited by Markéta Havlásková

More articles in Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis from Mendel University Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ivo Andrle ().