Quality Variation and Quantity Aggregation in Consumer Demand for Food
指出用简单物理数量加总衡量食品需求存在理论缺陷，探讨了基于质量变化、消费者偏好或相对价格约束的替代需求度量方法，并讨论其概念与实证优劣。
Abstract Viewing the problem of “quality” variation in consumer demand for food asa problem of valid aggregation over goods leads to new insights. The simple sum of physical quantities, used as the measure of demand in the “quality” literature, is found to be a theoretically arbitrary and potentially misleading measure of demand when goods are heterogenous. Alternative measures of demand derived from restrictions on quality variation, consumer preferences, or relative prices, are investigated. A hypothetical example illustrates the use of a Hicksian composite commodity assumption. The empirical as well as conceptual merits of the various measures are discussed.