Infrequency of purchase and double-hurdle models of Irish households' meat expenditure

This paper examines the effect of households' socio-economic characteristics, which are assumed to underpin preferences, on the pattern of consumers' meat expenditure at a disaggregated level. We estimate meat expenditure equations and calculate the associated elasticities using cross-sectional household budget survey data, using infrequency of purchase and double-hurdle models adjusted for the problems of heteroscedasticity and non-normality of the error terms. The paper provides an overview of the econometric techniques applied, based on recent literature. We find evidence of declining income elasticities in relation to meat expenditure and identify the effects of households' socio-economic characteristics on their meat expenditure. These effects suggest that the meat expenditure decisions of certain household groups are influenced by the desire for convenience. Copyright 2001, Oxford University Press.