Do increasing prices affect food deprivation in the European Union?

  • Sol García-Germán Research Centre for the Management of Agricultural and Environmental Risks (CEIGRAM), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), C/ Senda del Rey no. 13, 28040 Madrid
  • Isabel Bardají Research Centre for the Management of Agricultural and Environmental Risks (CEIGRAM), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), C/ Senda del Rey no. 13, 28040 Madrid
  • Alberto Garrido Research Centre for the Management of Agricultural and Environmental Risks (CEIGRAM), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), C/ Senda del Rey no. 13, 28040 Madrid
Keywords: consumer food prices, food deprivation indicator, consumers’ well-being, food crises

Abstract

The rise of prices of agricultural commodities in global markets during 2007-2012 was followed by increased consumer food prices around the world. More expensive food may have an impact on consumer food access and thus on their welfare, not only in developing countries but also amongst the most vulnerable in developed countries. Using a longitudinal database from the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions and population-averaged models, we tested whether increasing food prices had an impact on household food deprivation in 26 European Union (EU) member states. Results revealed a significant relationship between food deprivation and the consumer food price index and disposable income. Households in the lowest income quintile in the member states recently acceded to the EU were the most vulnerable to food deprivation. Results also showed that low-income households in densely populated areas were more vulnerable to food deprivation. This should be taken into account when evaluating food assistance programmes that focus on the segments of the population most at risk of food deprivation.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Alexandri C, Pauna B, Luca L, 2014. Food security and vulnerable households in Romania. FoodSecure Working Paper. http://www.foodsecure.eu/ [May 2017].

Antentas JM, Vivas E, 2014. Impacto de la crisis en el derecho a una alimentación sana y saludable. Informe SESPAS 2014. Gac Sanit 28 (S1): 58-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaceta.2014.04.006

Ballinger GA, 2004. Using generalized estimating equations for longitudinal data analysis. Organ Res Methods 7 (2): 127-150. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428104263672

Beatty TKM, 2010. Do the poor pay more for food? Evidence from the United Kingdom. Am J Agr Econ 92 (3): 608-621. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aaq020

Bukeviciute L, Dierx A, Ilzkovitz F, 2009. The functioning of the food supply chain and its effect on food prices in the European Union. Occasional papers No 47. http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/pages/publication15234_en.pdf [May 2015].

Carney C, Maître B, 2012. Constructing a food poverty indicator for Ireland using the survey on income and living conditions. Social Inclusion Technical Paper No 3, Department of Social Protection. Dublin.

Cockx L, Francken N, Pieters H, 2015. Food and nutrition security in the European Union: Overview and case studies. FoodSecure Working paper 31. http://www.foodsecure.eu/ [May 2015].

Davis O, Geiger BB, 2017. Did food insecurity rise across Europe after the 2008 crisis? An analysis across social regimes. Soc Policy Soc 16: 343-360. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746416000166

Dewbre J, Giner C, Thompson W, Von Lampe M, 2008. High food commodity prices: will they stay? Who will pay? Agric Econ 39 (s1): 393-403. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-0862.2008.00346.x

EC, 2008. Subject: Update on recent price developments in EU-27 agriculture and retail prices. European Commission, Brussels, CMD.

Engel M, Schaffner S, 2012. How to use the EU-SILC panel to analyse monthly and hourly wages. Ruhr Economic Papers 390.

EUROSTAT, 2012. Annual national accounts. Dataset. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ [Dec 2012].

EUROSTAT, 2014a. Annual sector accounts. Dataset. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ [Sept 2014].

EUROSTAT, 2014b. Harmonized indices of consumer prices HICP. Dataset. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ [Sept 2014].

Fusco A, Guio AC, Marlier E, 2010. Characterising the income poor and the materially deprived in European countries. In: Income and living conditions in Europe; Atkinson AB, Marlier E (eds.). pp: 134-153. European Commission, EUROSTAT.

Gilbert CL, Morgan CW, 2010. Food price volatility. Philos Trans R Soc B 365: 3023-3034. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0139

Gregory CA, Coleman-Jensen A, 2013. Do high food prices increase food insecurity in the United States? Appl Econ Perspect Pol 35 (4): 679-707. https://doi.org/10.1093/aepp/ppt024

Grethe H, Siddig K, Götz L, Ihle R, 2012. How do world agricultural commodity price spikes affect the income distribution in Israel? Annu Gewisola Conf, Hohenheim, 26-28 Sept.

Headey DD, 2013. The impact of the global food crisis on self-assessed food security. World Bank Econ Rev 27 (1): 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhs033

Hosmer DW, Lemeshow S, Sturdivant RX, 2013. Applied logistic regression, 3rd ed. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118548387

Huang KS, Wu Huang S, 2012. Consumer welfare effects of increased food and energy prices. Appl Econ 44: 2527-2536. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2011.566182

Jones NRV, Conklin AI, Suhrcke M, Monsivais P, 2014. The growing price gap between more and less healthy foods: Analysis of a novel longitudinal UK dataset. PLoS One 9 (10): e109343. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0109343

Liang KY, Zeger SL, 1986. Longitudinal data analysis using generalized linear models. Biometrika 73 (1): 13-22. https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/73.1.13

Ligon E, 2008. Food prices and the welfare of poor consumers. Agricultural and Resource Update 12 (2). Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics. http://giannini.ucop.edu/media/are-update/files/articles/v12n2_6.pdf [Sept 2014].

Lloyd TA, McCorriston S, Morgan CW, Zgovu E, 2013. European retail food price inflation. Eurochoices 12 (2): 37-44. https://doi.org/10.1111/1746-692X.12030

Lloyd TA, McCorriston S, Morgan CW, 2015. Food inflation in the EU: Contrasting experience and recent insights. In: Food price dynamics and price adjustment in the EU; McCorriston S (Ed.). Oxford Univ. Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198732396.003.0002

Loopstra R, Reeves A, Stuckler D, 2015. Rising food insecurity in the EU. The Lancet 385: 2041. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60983-7

McCorriston S, 2014. Competition in the food chain. Working Paper No 11, TRANSFOP project. http://www.transfop.eu/ [Aug 2014].

Nord M, Coleman-Jensen A, Gregory C, 2014. Prevalence of US food insecurity is related to changes in unemployment, inflation, and the price of food. ERR-167, USDA Econ Res Serv.

Reeves A, Loopstra R, Stuckler D, 2017. The growing disconnect between food prices and wages in Europe: cross-national analysis of food deprivation and welfare regimes in 21 EU countries, 2004-2012. Public Health Nutrition.

Rizov M, Cupak A, Pokrivcak J, 2014. Food security and household consumption patterns in Slovakia. FoodSecure Working Paper. http://www.foodsecure.eu/ [May 2017].

Schnepf R, 2013. Consumers and food price inflation. CRS Report for Congress. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40545.pdf [Jan 2015].

Schoen V, Lang T, 2014. UK food prices: cooling or bubbling? Food Res Collab. http://foodresearch.org.uk/ [Jan 2015].

Swinnen J, Knops L, Van Herck K, 2013. Food price volatility and EU policies. WIDER Working Paper No 2013/032.

Verpoorten M, Arora A, Stoop N, Swinnen J, 2013. Self-reported food insecurity in Africa during the food price crisis. Food Policy 39: 51-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2012.12.006

Zeger SL, Liang KY, 1986. Longitudinal data analysis for discrete and continuous outcomes. Biometrics 42: 121-130. https://doi.org/10.2307/2531248

Published
2018-04-26
How to Cite
García-Germán, S., Bardají, I., & Garrido, A. (2018). Do increasing prices affect food deprivation in the European Union?. Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research, 16(1), e0103. https://doi.org/10.5424/sjar/2018161-11254
Section
Agricultural economics