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Food expenditure and economic development

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Abstract

In this article Earnst Engel's statements about the relationship between food expenditure are investigated for 80 countries. Food expenditure as a percentage of all expenditure is shown to have a distinctive geographical distribution, and is related to Gross National Product per capita, although not in a simple linear manner. Historical data for the percentage are discussed and a decline over time and with increasing income is observed. However for some periods of income growth there is no decline and some possible reasons for this are discussed.

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Grigg, D. Food expenditure and economic development. GeoJournal 33, 377–382 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00806419

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