Determinants of pork demand by income class in urban western China

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of pork consumption in urban western China and the different consumption patterns across income strata with respect to income elasticity and price elasticity of demand. Design/methodology/approach – The double-hurdle model is fit to the household data of Sichuan and Xinjiang provinces which is from the National Bureau of Statistics urban household surveys. Findings – The paper finds that consumers’ purchasing decisions regarding pork are related to both non-economic and economic factors. The results also indicate large differences among the determinants for decision of how much pork to buy across the three income strata. Low-income households have higher income elasticity than middle-income and high-income households. High-income and middle-income households’ level of pork consumption is more sensitive to pork price. High-income households have greater cross-price elasticity. Originality/value – In the previous studies, the non-economic determinants of pork consumption have not been addressed, and neither does the issue of difference pork purchasing behavior across income strata for urban households in western China. So this study uses the double-hurdle model to investigate the determinants of pork consumption in urban western China.