摘要：Researchers believe that rice in developed countries such as Japan became an inferiorgood a few decades ago. This study employs the flexible complete demand system forthe recent cross-sectional data in Japan. Our results clearly show that rice in Japan is anormal good contrary to the preceding studies. The objective of this research is toanalyze the food consumption patterns and to conduct econometric analysis of fooddemand structure. We use the monthly basis cross-sectional household data, AnnualReport on the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) in 1997. Food items arenon-glutinous rice, bread, noodle, fresh fish, and shellfish, fresh meat, milk, eggs, freshvegetables, fresh fruits, fats and oil, and food away from home. We apply various singleequation models: Working-Leser model is estimated by OLS, Heckman's two-stepestimator, and Tobit estimator. All coefficients have correct signs and are statisticallysignificant. For the complete demand system analysis, we apply the almost ideal demand(AIDS) system. To correct a censored dependent variable problem, we additionallyutilize a censored regression approach. Results from AIDS models show that theexpenditure elasticity of rice is positive and close to one. Marshallian and Hicksian own-price elasticities for rice are highly elastic for all models. Fresh meats and rice are mildcomplements in all models; however, fresh fish and rice show the mixed results.
关键词：AIDS model; Cross-section; Income Elasticity; Japan; Rice Consumption.
