The Caloric Costs of Culture: Evidence from Indian Migrants

David Atkin

No 164697, Working Papers from American Association of Wine Economists

Abstract: Anthropologists have long documented substantial and persistent differences across so- cial groups in the preferences and taboos for particular foods. One natural question to ask is whether such food cultures matter in an economic sense. In particular, can culture constrain caloric intake and contribute to malnutrition? To answer this question, I first document that inter-state migrants within India consume fewer calories per Rupee of food expenditure com- pared to their non-migrant neighbors, even for households with very low caloric intake. I then form a chain of evidence in support of an explanation based on culture: that migrants make nutritionally-suboptimal food choices due to cultural preferences for the traditional foods of their origin states. First, I focus on the preferences themselves and document that migrants bring their origin-state food preferences with them when they migrate. Second, I link together the findings on caloric intake and preferences by showing that the gap in caloric intake between locals and migrants is related to the suitability and intensity of the migrants’ origin-state food preferences: the most adversely affected migrants (households in which both husband and wife migrated to a village where their origin-state preferences are unsuited to the local price vector) would consume 7 percent more calories if they possessed the same preferences as their neighbors.

Keywords: Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/164697/files/AAWE_WP140.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Caloric Costs of Culture: Evidence from Indian Migrants (2016)
Working Paper: The Caloric Costs of Culture: Evidence from Indian Migrants (2013)
Working Paper: The Caloric Costs of Culture: Evidence from Indian Migrants (2013)
Working Paper: The Caloric Costs of Culture: Evidence from Indian Migrants (2013)
Working Paper: The Caloric Costs of Culture: Evidence from Indian Migrants (2013)
Working Paper: The Caloric Costs of Culture: Evidence from Indian Migrants (2013)
Working Paper: The Caloric Costs of Culture: Evidence from Indian Migrants (2013)
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:ags:aawewp:164697

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.164697

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from American Association of Wine Economists Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().