Food and Cash Transfers: Evidence from Colombia

Attanasio, Orazio; Battistin, Erich; Mesnard, Alice

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Food and Cash Transfers: Evidence from Colombia

CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP7326

50 Pages Posted: 15 Jul 2009

See all articles by Orazio Attanasio

Orazio Attanasio

University College London - Department of Economics; Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Alice Mesnard

University of Toulouse 1 - Advanced Research in Quantitative Applied Development Economics (ARQADE); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

There are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: June 2009

Abstract

We study food Engel curves among the poor population targeted by a conditional cash transfer programme in Colombia. After controlling for the endogeneity of total expenditure and for the (unobserved) variability of prices across villages, the best fit is provided by a log-linear specification. Our estimates imply that an increase in total expenditure by 10% would lead to a decrease of 1% in the share of food. However, quasi-experimental estimates of the impact of the programme on total and food consumption show that the share of food increases, suggesting that the programme has more complex impacts on expenditure patterns than those induced by higher household income and expenditure.

Keywords: demand patterns, evaluation of welfare programmes, food Engel curves

JEL Classification: C52, D12, I38

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Attanasio, Orazio and Battistin, Erich and Mesnard, Alice, Food and Cash Transfers: Evidence from Colombia (June 2009). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP7326, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1433922