The expenditure elasticity for food and calories: Evidence from unconditional cash transfers in Kenya
利用肯尼亚农村两个无条件现金转移项目带来的预算外生变化，估计了食品和卡路里的支出弹性，分别约为0.86和0.66，对设计扶贫政策有参考价值。
Accurate estimates of food and nutrient elasticities are important inputs for the design of efficient policies targeting the poor. In this paper we estimate the expenditure elasticity of food and calories using exogenous variation in budget from two unconditional cash transfer programs in rural Kenya, combined with detailed data on food expenditure, nutrition and prices. We find an elasticity of food expenditure of 0.86 and of calories of 0.66. Although these estimates are higher than those reported in many previous studies — plausibly because our study focuses on extremely poor households — they are significantly lower than those obtained using a non-experimental analysis in our context.