The expenditure elasticity for food and calories: Evidence from unconditional cash transfers in Kenya
Abstract
Accurate estimates of food and nutrient elasticities are important inputs for the design of efficient policies targeting the poor. In this paper we estimate the expenditure elasticity of food and calories using exogenous variation in budget from two unconditional cash transfer programs in rural Kenya, combined with detailed data on food expenditure, nutrition and prices. We find an elasticity of food expenditure of 0.86 and of calories of 0.66. Although these estimates are higher than those reported in many previous studies — plausibly because our study focuses on extremely poor households — they are significantly lower than those obtained using a non-experimental analysis in our context.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Poverty
Education
and Child Welfare
Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth
Gender
Labor
and Family Dynamics
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Journal of Development Economics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Volume
- 183
- Pages
- 103869–103869
- Publication date
- 4 July 2026
- Language
- EN