Please wait a minute...
Journal of Integrative Agriculture  2021, Vol. 20 Issue (9): 2569-2580    DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(20)63585-7
Special Issue: 农业经济与管理合辑Agricultural Economics and Management
Agricultural Economics and Management Advanced Online Publication | Current Issue | Archive | Adv Search |
Mental accounting and consumption of self-produced food
HUANG Jia-qi1, 2, Gerrit ANTONIDES2, Christian H. KUHLGATZ3, NIE Feng-ying1 
1 Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, P.R.China
2 Urban Economics Group, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University, Wageningen 6706 KN, The Netherlands
3 Market Analysis Unit, Federal Office for Agriculture FOAG, 3003 Bern, Switzerland
Download:  PDF in ScienceDirect  
Export:  BibTeX | EndNote (RIS)      
摘要  

该研究旨在探索心理账户理论与农户自产食物消费之间的关联。我们假设心理账户理论可能适用于解释农户分配和使用自产食物的部分行为。收获后农户预留部分自产食物作为自食账户,并一直消费自食账户中的食物。由心理账户理论在其他应用领域中发现的特征,我们推测农户在对自产食物的消费上可能出现以下现象:心理账户使得农户忽略自食账户的机会成本,使其对价格变动不敏感;当某一种农产品的产量小于农户消费需求(设定的自食账户量)时,产量对自食消费有显著正向影响;当产量大于农户消费需求时,产量对自食消费不再有显著影响。研究采用来自中国六个贫困县的农户调查数据,针对大米、面粉、马铃薯、猪肉、鸡蛋五种食物自产部分的消费,运用双对数需求模型验证以上假设。结果表明当产量小于农户消费需求时,自产面粉、马铃薯、猪肉的消费符合价格不敏感假设,而当产量大于农户消费需求时,自产大米、猪肉、鸡蛋的消费符合价格不敏感假设。产量对五种自产食物的消费都有显著正向影响,但当产量小于农户消费需求时的影响程度远大于产量大于农户消费需求时。由此进一步讨论了研究的局限性、政策含义以及未来的研究方向





Abstract  
This is an exploratory study on mental accounting and food budgeting of agricultural households, in which we assumed that agricultural households may have a mental account for consumption of their self-produced food.  Accordingly, they may reserve a certain quantity of self-produced food as a set budget for own consumption, implying that they may keep on consuming their own produce until they have consumed the quantity set for the mental budget.  By making the mental accounting assumption, we hypothesized that the consumption of self-produced food is independent of market price.  Also, we hypothesized that the consumption of self-produced food is increasing in the quantity of production if production is lower than the set budget, and independent of the quantity of production if production exceeds the set budget.  By applying a double-log demand model and using survey data from six poor rural counties in China, we tested these hypotheses for five food items, which are rice, flour, potatoes, pork, and eggs.  We found that the hypothesis of no significant effect of price holds for flour, potatoes, and pork if production is lower than the set budget, and for rice, pork, and eggs if production is higher than the set budget.  Production has a significant positive effect on consumption of self-produced food but with a much greater influence when production is lower than the set budget for all five food items.  These findings partly support our assumption of mental accounting of self-produced food.  Limitations, policy implications, and possible future studies are discussed.
 
Keywords:  mental accounting        food consumption        self-produced food        agricultural household  
Received: 15 July 2020   Accepted:
Fund: This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (71861147003 and 71661147001), and the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS-ASTIP-2016-AII). 
Corresponding Authors:  Correspondence NIE Feng-ying, Tel: +86-10-82109901, E-mail: niefengying@caas.cn; Gerrit ANTONIDES, E-mail: gerrit.antonides@wur.nl   
About author:  HUANG Jia-qi, E-mail: huangjiaqi@caas.cn;

Cite this article: 

HUANG Jia-qi, Gerrit ANTONIDES, Christian H. KUHLGATZ, NIE Feng-ying. 2021. Mental accounting and consumption of self-produced food. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 20(9): 2569-2580.

Abeler J, Marklein F. 2008. Fungibility, labels, and consumption. IZA Discussion Papers, No. 3500, Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn, 1–42.
Babu S, Gajanan S N, Hallam J A. 2016. Nutrition Economics: Principles and Policy Applications. Academic Press. New York, USA.
Cheema A, Soman D. 2008. The effect of partitions on controlling consumption. Journal of Marketing Research, 45, 665–675.
Chinese Nutrition Society. 2016. Chinese Dietary Guidelines. People’s Medical Publishing House, Beijing, China. (in Chinese)
Christensen L R, Jorgenson D W, Lau L J. 1975. Transcendental logarithmic utility functions. American Economic Review, 65, 367–383.
Claro R M, Levy R B, Bandoni D H, Mondini L. 2010. Per capita versus adult-equivalent estimates of calorie availability in household budget surveys. Cadernos de Saude Publica, 26, 2188–2195.
Cudjoe G, Breisinger C. 2008. Local impacts of a global crisis: Food price transmission and poverty impacts in Ghana. IFPRI Discussion Paper 00842. Washington D.C., International Food Policy Research Institute.
Deaton A, Drèze J. 2009. Food and nutrition in India: Facts and interpretations. Economic & Political Weekly, 44, 42–65.
Deaton A, Muellbauer J. 1980. An almost ideal demand system. The American Economic Review, 70, 312–326.
Ecker O, Qaim M. 2011. Analyzing nutritional impacts of policies: An empirical study for Malawi. World Development, 39, 412–428.
Fanzo J, Hunter D, Borelli T, Mattei F. 2013. Diversifiyig Food and Diets. Routledge, London, UK.
FAO. 2014. The State of Food and Agriculture - Family Farming. FAO, Rome.
Frederick S, Novemsky N, Wang J, Dhar R, Nowlis S. 2009. Opportunity cost neglect. Journal of Consumer Research, 36, 553–561.
Gibson J, Rozelle S. 2011. The effects of price on household demand for food and calories in poor countries: Are our databases giving reliable estimates? Applied Economics, 43, 4021–4031.
Goetz S J. 1992. A selectivity model of household food marketing behavior in sub-Saharan Africa. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 74, 444–452.
Headey D, Ecker O. 2013. Rethinking the measurement of food security: From first principles to best practice. Food Security, 5, 327–343.
Heath C, Soll J B. 1996. Mental budgeting and consumer decisions. Journal of Consumer Research, 23, 40–52.
Huang J, Antonides G, Nie F. 2020. Is mental accounting of farm produce associated with more consumption of own-produced food? Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 88, 101594.
De Janvry A, Sadoulet E. 1994. Structural adjustment under transactions costs. In: Heidhues F, Knerr B,  eds., Food and Agricultural Policies under Structural Adjustment: Seminar of the European Association of Agricultural Economists. Hohenheim, Frankfurt am Main. pp. 137–165.
Jones A D. 2017. Critical review of the emerging research evidence on agricultural biodiversity, diet diversity, and nutritional status in low- and middle-income countries. Nutrition Reviews, 75, 769–782.
Just D R, Mancino L, Wansink B. 2007. Could behavioral economics help improve diet quality for nutrition assistance program participants? Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Washington, D.C., USA. 
Key N, Sadoulet E, De Janvry A. 2000. Transactions costs and agricultural household supply response. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 82, 245–259.
Krishnamurthy P, Prokopec S 2010. Resisting that triple-chocolate cake: Mental budgets and self-control. Journal of Consumer Research, 37, 68–79.
Levav J, Mcgraw A P. 2009. Emotional accounting: How feelings about money influence consumer choice. Journal of Markeing Research, 46, 66–80.
Mazumdar T, Raj S P, Sinha I. 2005. Reference price research: Review and propositions. Journal of Marketing, 69, 84–102.
Milkman K L, Beshears J. 2009. Mental accounting and small windfalls: Evidence from an online grocer. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 71, 384–394.
Nie F, Wadhwa A, Wang W. 2011. Analysis of Food Security and Vulnerability in Six Counties in Rural China. China Agricultural Science and Technology Press, Beijing, China. (in Chinese)
OECD. 1982. The OECD List of Social Indicators. OECD, Paris, France.
Park A. 2006. Risk and household grain management in developing countries. The Economic Journal, 116, 1088–1115.
Piggott N E. 2003. The nested PIGLOG model: An application to U.S. food demand. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 85, 1–15.
Pinstrup-Andersen P. 2007. Agricultural research and policy for better health and nutrition in developing countries: A food systems approach. Agricultural Economics, 37, 187–198.
Powell B, Thilsted S H, Ickowitz A, Termote C, Sunderland T, Herforth A. 2015. Improving diets with wild and cultivated biodiversity from across the landscape. Food Security, 7, 535–554.
Pretnar N, Montgomery A, Olivola C. 2016. A structural model of mental accounting. Working paper. [2018-12-29]. http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/alm3/papers/mental accounting.pdf
Rajagopal P, Rha J Y. 2009. The mental accounting of time. Journal of Economic Psychology, 30, 772–781.
Robles M, Torero M, Cues J. 2010. Understanding the impact of high food prices in Latin America. Economia, 10, 117–164.
Sadoulet E, De Janvry A. 1995. Quantitative Development Policy Analysis. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, London.
Shefrin H M, Thaler R H. 1988. The behavioral life-cycle hypothesis. Economic Inquiry, 26, 609–643.
Shefrin H M, Thaler R H. 1992. Mental accounting, saving, and self-control. In: Loewenstein G, Elster J, eds., Choice over Time. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, USA. pp. 287–330.
Sibhatu K T, Qaim M. 2018. Review: The association between production diversity, diets, and nutrition in smallholder farm households. Food Policy, 77, 1–18.
Singh I, Squire L, Strauss J. 1986. Agricultural Household Models: Extensions, Applications, and Policy. The World Bank. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, London.
Soman D. 2001. The mental accounting of sunk time costs: Why time is not like money. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 14, 169–185.
Taylor J E, Adelman I. 2003. Agricultural household models: genesis, evolution, and extensions. Review of Economics of the Household, 1, 33–58.
Tedford J R, Capps Jr O, Havlicek Jr J. 1986. Adult equivalent scales once more - A developmental approach. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 68, 322–333.
Tekgüç H. 2012. Separability between own food production and consumption in Turkey. Review of Economics of the Household, 10, 423–439.
Thaler R. 1985. Mental accounting and consumer choice. Marketing Science, 4, 199–214.
Thaler R H. 1999. Mental accounting matters. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 12, 183.
Thaler R H. 2015. Misbehaving. Allen Lane, UK.
[1] MIN Shi, HOU Ling-ling, Hermann Waibel, HUANG Ji-kun, MU Yue-ying. The impact of migration on the food consumption and nutrition of left-behind family members: Evidence from a minority mountainous region of southwestern China[J]. >Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 2019, 18(8): 1780-1792.
No Suggested Reading articles found!