Skip to content

Marc F. Bellemare Posts

Published October 27, 2011

Conditional Cash Transfers and the Budget Share of Food

From a forthcoming paper by Attanasio et al. in the Economic Journal:

We study food Engel curves amongst the poor population targeted by a conditional cash transfer program in Colombia. After controlling for the endogeneity of total consumption and for the price variability across villages, our estimates imply that an increase in consumption by 10 percent would lead to a decrease of 1 percent in the share of food. However, quasi-experimental estimates of the impact of the program show that the share of food increases. This result is not inconsistent with the hypothesis that the program could increase the bargaining power of women, inducing a more than proportional increase in food consumption.

Published October 27, 2011

#Occupy Duke?

Yes we can.

Click on the images for full-sized pictures

My Sanford School colleague Bob Korstad will be discussing the Occupy movement’s place in history this afternoon. More information here.

Published October 26, 2011

Eight Foods to Ban Before Foie Gras

Photo Credit: Alamy.

In less than a year, foie gras will be banned from Californian restaurants. From an article in the food section of the HuffPost:

The consumption of foie gras is a hotly contested issue worldwide, but we can’t help but think that there are foods that are more controversial than duck liver. Foie gras is a delicacy consumed by few. Foods like feedlot beef and farmed salmon are sold on a much larger scale, so consuming them arguably has a much bigger impact not only in terms of animal rights, but also for human and environmental health.

The article also includes a slideshow to illustrate what those eight foods are.

In the interest of full disclosure and of admitting to my biases, however, I should probably add that I really like foie gras, and that I wish the French bistro around the corner from my house served it more often.