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Abstract
Noticing the research gaps of behavioral economics in food consumption for rural residents in developing countries, and the practical interest in behavioral economics being helpful in designing a broader array of policies or strategies to improve diets and nutrition of rural residents, this dissertation aims to bring behavioral economic insights to provide additional explanations of food consumption of rural households in underdeveloped areas of China. More specifically, this dissertation examines loss aversion and asymmetric price effects on food demand (Chapter 3); explores mental accounting applications in dealing with self-produced food and its dietary outcome (Chapters 4 and 5); and tests how attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, perceived need, and habit influence food consumption of rural households (Chapter 6).
Our findings confirm that loss aversion effects exist for food demand responses to price changes in different directions for rural households. However, the loss aversion effects differed by type of households (pure consumers versus farmers), food categories, and model specifications with different ways to incorporate reference price. Mental accounting theory was first applied to explain the allocation and consumption of self-produced food of rural households, and we found more than half of the subjects showed mental accounting behavior at some level. Moreover, more subjects using “more- than-needed-food reserve” than “food-needed-to-consume” as their mental budget, and tracking consumption against the budget, consequently indicating overconsumption of own-produced food, which is usually storable staple food, thus may sacrifice an opportunity to achieve a more diversified diet. Also, when food reserve was lower than consumption needs, mental accounting seemed less obvious, instead, households purchase more food from the market to compensate the shortage of the available food, consequently rendering underconsumption less likely. As for social-psychological factors, we found incorporation of perceived need and habit substantially increased the explanatory power of the TPB, and perceived need and habit are stronger predictors of intention than attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control for consumption of eggs, dairy, fish, and fruits, which are food items contain rich nutrients but with far-below-recommended consumption level for the rural households.
In conclusion, this dissertation is a fresh attempt in making behavioral economic contributions to explain food consumption of rural residents in a developing country, who face challenges of undernutrition. The findings confirm that behavioral economic theories such as loss aversion, mental accounting, and the theory of planned behaviour were also applicable to explain food consumption behaviour of rural households, and additionally to explain the behavior of allocation and consumption of self-produced food. The ideas, results, and implications in this dissertation may also apply to rural residents of other developing counties where smallholder agriculture is prevalent.
Original language | English |
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Qualification | Doctor of Philosophy |
Awarding Institution |
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Supervisors/Advisors |
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Award date | 26 Oct 2021 |
Place of Publication | Wageningen |
Publisher | |
Print ISBNs | 9789463959667 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 26 Oct 2021 |
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Dive into the research topics of 'A behavioral economic account of rural household food consumption : evidence from underdeveloped areas in China'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
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Relationship of poverty and food security & nutrition-evidence from poor countries of China
Huang, J. (PhD candidate), Antonides, G. (Promotor) & van Leeuwen, E. (Promotor)
15/11/16 → 26/10/21
Project: PhD