Abstract

SZEKELY PARDO, Miguel  and  ORTEGA DIAZ, Araceli. Pobreza alimentaria y desarrollo en México. El trimestre econ [online]. 2014, vol.81, n.321, pp.43-105. ISSN 2448-718X.

This study analyzes the effect of increments in the price of basic food basket over poverty in Mexico. Our main contribution is the estimation, for the first time, of price elasticity for the 22 goods included in the food poverty line, for the period 1992-2010 for the population as a whole, as well as for the poor and for the non-poor, respectively, using the quadratic almost ideal demand system (QUAIDS) method of Banks, Blundell, and Lewbel (1997). The analysis includes the construction of a food poverty series for 1950-2010, the decomposition of changes in poverty to identify the impact of price chances, the analysis of variations in consumption patterns for the poor. Our results lead to practical suggestions on how to smooth the price effect over consumption for poor households, and we also discuss alternatives for increasing the supply of goods that are critical for the poor’s consumption.

Keywords : México; pobreza; desarrollo.