Protecting energy intakes against income shocks
利用俄罗斯收入波动时期的数据，研究发现家庭通过削减非食品支出、改变消费结构、增加廉价卡路里摄入等方式，几乎完全保护了总能量摄入不受收入冲击影响。
Whether and how changes in economic circumstances or household income affect individuals’ diet and nutritional intakes is of substantial interest for policy purposes. This paper exploits a period of substantial income volatility in Russia to examine the extent to which, as well as how individuals protect their energy intakes in the face of unanticipated shocks to household income. Using rich data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, our results suggest that households use substitution, disproportionally cutting back spending on non-foods to protect spending on foods, change the composition of the consumption basket, and increase the consumption of ‘cheaper’ calories. Taken together, however, we find that total energy intakes as well as the nutritional composition of the diet are almost fully protected against income shocks. Specifically, we find that 12–16% of the effect of permanent income shocks on food expenditures is transmitted to energy intakes, with 84–88% protected through insurance mechanisms.