NUTRIENT ELASTICITIES IN A COMPLETE FOOD DEMAND SYSTEM

This study explores the linkage of the determinants of food choice wit h consumer nutrient availability by developing a procedure to measure changes in nutrient availability as the demand for food items change. It uses demand elasticities from traditional demand analysis to estima te elasticities of changes in the nutritional content of consumer diet s. The procedure is applied to estimate nutrient elasticities for fift een nutrients in response to changes in thirty-five food prices and pe r capita income.