Why is food cheaper in rich (European) countries?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13133/2037-3643/9830Keywords:
Food, PricesAbstract
Relative to non-food items, food tends to be cheaper in rich, as compared with poorEuropean countries. This tendency cannot be explained in terms of cost developments or foreign-trade considerations. A positive explanation proposed focuses on demand-income-supply interaction. An analysis of a cross-country price-augmented modification of Engel Law, econometrically specified, indicates that the relative price of food is related positively to the supply of food items and negatively to that of non-food items. This finding is consistent with "agricultural price scissors", and also casts a different light on the nature of economic development and structural change.
JEL Codes: L11, L66, Q11
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