Abstract
The overriding objective of this paper is to clarify changes in household food consumption expenditure after the 1997/98 Asian Economic Crisis, with special reference to Peninsular Malaysia (West Malaysia). We estimated Engel's expenditure elasticities for food items using aggregated cross-sectional data from the 1993/94, 1998/99 and 2004/05 Household Expenditure Surveys. The estimated results clearly indicate that the expenditure elasticities of away-from-home food for upper and middle classes increased after the Asian Economic Crisis. In addition, we found that elasticities of at-home expenditures for meat, fruits and vegetables, milk and dairy products are relatively high, those of rice is low. These findings suggest that the food expenditure structure in Peninsular Malaysia has diversified.
