Food consumption of outgoing rural migrant workers in urban area of China A QUAIDS approach

Purpose - In the process of economic development and urbanization, it is important to capture the outgoing rural migrant workers' food consumption characteristics for ensuring China's future food security. The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the structural characteristics in food consumption demand of outgoing rural migrant workers. Design/methodology/approach - The food consumption of rural migrant workers is estimated using a quaids approach by the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator to reveal the determinants of the food consumption of outgoing rural migrant workers in urban China based on a sample of 876 of outgoing rural migrant workers from the 2007-2009 household survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Findings - The results show that the GMM estimator is consistent compared with the SUR estimator; the conditional expenditure elasticities of grain foods, livestock products, edible oils and vegetables by outgoing rural migrant workers are 0.877, 1.081, 0.787 and 0.958, respectively; the unconditional expenditure elasticities of grain foods, livestock products, edible oils and vegetables are 0.634, 0.782, 0.569 and 0.693, respectively; the conditional Marshallian own-price elasticities of grain foods, livestock products, edible oils and vegetables are -1.004, -1.019, -0.645 and -1.021, respectively. Practical implications - First, the differences in food consuming patterns between rural residents and outgoing rural migrant workers should be emphasized in ensuring China's food security for the policymakers. Second, how to ensure the supply for the increase in the consumption demand of livestock products in urban areas should be a major focus of China's food security strategy. Originality/value - In total, 876 households of outgoing rural migrant worker from the 2007-2009 household survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics of China are used; compared the GMM estimator with the SUR estimator in the estimate of the QUAIDS model; it sheds light on the structural characteristics in food consumption demand of outgoing rural migrant workers.