Food demand in Slovenia

English. The objective of this research is to analyse food consumption patterns in Slovenia. Cross-sectional household data from Household budget survey in year 2001 were used. We estimate expenditure and price elasticities for food demand for households segmented by quartile income levels and for Slovenia total. Food items are divided into the following commodity groups: bread and cereals, meat and fish, dairy products, oils and other fats, fruit, vegetables, confectionary. For a complete demand system analysis, we apply linearly approximated Almost Ideal Demand System (LA/AIDS). Empirical results show positive expenditure elasticities being close to one for all food groups. In general, demands for dairy products and vegetables could be regarded as the most sensitive to food expenditures. Further on, all Marshallian (uncompensated) and Hicksian (compensated) own price elasticities are negative and less than one. Own price elasticities for meat and fish are estimated as the lowest and for vegetables as the highest. With cross price elasticities close to zero the studied commodity groups seem to be unrelated. The negative sign of uncompensated cross price elasticities indicates complementary type of food groups, while substitution relationship of aggregate foods is indicated by mostly positive Hicksian cross price elasticities. According to these expenditure and price elasticities inhabitants of Slovenia seem to be losing consumption characteristics typical for countries in transition. However some unique food habits persist.

Slovenian. Namen _tudije je analiza prehranskih navad prebivalcev Slovenije. Podatke iz Ankete o porabi v gospodinjstvih v letu 2001 smo uporabili za ocenjevanje izdatkovnih in cenovnih elastičnosti povpra_evanja po hrani za gospodinjstva v Sloveniji. Gospodinjstva so razdeljena v kvartilne dohodkovne razrede in kot Slovenija skupaj. Prehranske izdelke smo razdelili v naslednje skupine _ivil: kruh in _ita, meso in ribe, mlečni izdelki, olja in druge ma_čobe, sadje, zelenjava, sladki izdelki. Povpra_evanje po hrani je ocenjeno kot sistem enačb povpra_evanja z linearno aproksimacijo metode skoraj idealni sistem povpra_evanja (LA/AIDS). Ocenjene izdatkovne elastičnosti so pozitivne, z vrednostmi blizu 1. V splo_nem lahko trdimo, da sta povpra_evanje po mlečnih izdelkih ter povpra_evanje po zelenjavi najbolj občutljivi na spremembe v izdatkih namenjenih hrani. Nadalje, vse Marshallove (nekompenzirane) in Hicksove (kompenzirane) lastne cenovne elastičnosti so negativne in manj_e od 1. Lastne cenovne elastičnosti povpra_evanja po mesu in ribah so bile ocenjene kot najni_je, povpra_evanja po zelenjavi pa kot najvi_je. Omenjene skupine _ivil so med seboj cenovno nepovezane, saj so kri_ne cenovne elastičnosti blizu vrednosti nič. Večina nekompenziranih kri_nih cenovnih elastičnosti je negativna, kar nakazuje na komplementarnost proučevanih skupin _ivil oziroma na substitute, ko govorimo o večinoma pozitivnih Hicksovih kri_nih cenovnih elastičnostih. Ocenjene izdatkovne in cenovne elastičnosti ka_ejo, da prebivalci Slovenije izgubljajo prehranske navade značilne za dr_ave v tranziciji. Kljub temu nekatere prehranske posebnosti ostajajo.