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Household size and food consumption spending in cameroon. is there evidence of economies of size?

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Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of household size on food consumption spending in Cameroon. This paper extracts secondary data from the Cameroon household consumption survey conducted in 2014 by the government’s statistics office. The residual inclusion version of the two-stage least squares method is used to investigate the effect of household size on household consumption spending. We find that non-self-cluster fertility, non-self-cluster mortality and cluster-level household size are relevant instrumental variables for household size. We also find evidence of a U-shaped relationship between household size and food expenditure. Specifically, with household size below 7 members, any additional member decreases consumption spending, but above this threshold, any additional member increases consumption spending per adult equivalent. These findings present evidence of economies of scale in food consumption spending. Other variables that correlate positively with consumption spending include access to credit, urban residency, primary education, secondary education and tertiary education. Meanwhile, general price level correlates negatively with household food spending. These results have policy implications for the optimal household size in predominantly agricultural/rural settings.

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Data availability

All original research must include a data availability statement. Data availability statements should include information on where data supporting the results reported in the article can be found, if applicable. Statements should include, where applicable, hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during this study. For the purposes of the data availability statement, “data” are defined as the minimal dataset that would be necessary to interpret, replicate and build upon the findings reported in the article. When it is not possible to shares research data publicly, for instance, when individual privacy could be compromised, data availability should still be stated in the manuscript along with any conditions for access. Please refer to “Data availability” in “Instructions for authors” for more information on how to complete this section. This study made use of data collected from secondary sources. In this study use was made of the fourth national household surveys undertaken in 2014(ECAM 4) by the National Institute of Statistics Cameroon. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://slmp-550-104.slc.westdc.net/~stat54/nada/index.php/catalog/114&ved=2ahUKEwjKhPbm-Yf9AhWDO-wKHWP2DuYQFnoECAgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2kihMP9lqchUnLvhuKQ4dx

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  1. Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences, University of Bamenda, Bamenda, Cameroon

    Dickson Thomas Ndamsa, Delphine Murkwi Gur & Francis Menjo Baye

  2. Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences, University of Yaounde II, Yaounde, Cameroon

    Francis Menjo Baye

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Ndamsa, D.T., Gur, D.M. & Baye, F.M. Household size and food consumption spending in cameroon. is there evidence of economies of size?. SN Bus Econ 3, 153 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43546-023-00521-5

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