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Title: Is Healthy Food a Luxury for the Low-Income Households in the U.S.?

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2016

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Abstract: This paper studies how the quality of food purchased by low-income households changes after a positive income shock. Using induced changes in the household budget due to exogenous variation in the winter temperature that directly affects heating bills, I show that households do not improve the nutritional quality of their food purchases. Households below 130 percent of the poverty threshold increase total calorie amount without changing the composition of food purchases. Households above 130 percent of the poverty threshold purchase different products, but these products are of mixed nutritional quality. My findings suggest that policies that provide food subsidies face a trade-off subsidizing not just the increased consumption of healthy food but also the increased consumption of unhealthy food.

Url: https://sites.duke.edu/olgakozlova/files/2016/10/jmp_okozlova.pdf

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Authors: Kozlova, Olga

Publisher: Duke University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Health, Other, Poverty and Welfare

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