食品价格和饮食知识在提高中国饮食质量方面的作用∗

摘要

China has been experiencing a rapid incrase in the prevalence of overweight/obesity after 1 990,and China now has the largest number of overweight people in the world.The increasing overweight/obesity will cause a substantial increase in diet-related chronic diseases and economic and social costs.Thus,it is critical to prevent and mitigate overweight/obesity in China.As potential policy channels,this paper focuses on the roles of food price and dietary knowledge in leading people to healthier diet.The paper finds that overweight people tend to be more responsive to food price and income changes,and that the undesirable impacts of increasing pork and oil prices on diet quality are smaller among people with higher dietary knowledge.The findings imply that food price policy can be more effective among overweight people and that dietary education may mitigate the undesirable effects of increasing pork and oil prices on diet quality in China.The paper also demonstrates the importance of taking into account substitutions across food groups when we evaluate the impact of food price policy on diet quality.%1990年之后，中国人口的肥胖率迅速上升，现今已是肥胖人数最多的国家。肥胖人数的增加会导致与饮食相关的慢性疾病的发病率上升，同时也会使得相关的经济、社会成本大幅增加。因此，阻止和缓解中国的肥胖问题十分关键。作为潜在的政策渠道，论文的研究中心是食品价格和饮食知识在引导人们更加健康地饮食方面的作用。文章发现肥胖人群更易受食品价格和收入变化的影响。同时，猪肉和油价上涨对饮食质量的不良影响，对有着较多膳食知识的人群来说会更小一些。这表明食品价格政策在肥胖人群中会更有效，饮食教育可以减小猪肉和油价上涨对中国饮食质量所产生的不良影响。文章也表明在评估食品价格政策对饮食质量影响时考虑食物群中替代品的重要性。