Income and Price Elasticities of Demand for Food in the EU

Abstract Using representative cross-sectional household survey data from the 27 EU member states, this paper estimates consumer demand elasticities at the EU level, by quintiles of household income, and at the member state level. It employs an EASI demand system, imposing weak separability between consumption expenditures and other expenditures. At the aggregated EU level, all food categories behave as normal goods. Own-price elasticities are negative for all food categories but differ in magnitude: potatoes, milk and dairy products, and fruits are relatively price responsive, while fish and seafood, poultry and eggs, bread, and meat are less sensitive to price changes. Demand elasticities vary considerably by income level, with poorer households being more price sensitive overall. Citation Gehrke, E., & Jin, Y. (2026). Income and Price Elasticities of Demand for Food in the EU. BrightSpace Horizon Europe project GA Nr. 101060075. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19553633 ----------------- Funding acknowledgement Funded by the European Union. Grant Agreement No. 101060075. Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. UK Research and Innovation Project Code: 10047415 https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10047415Legal notice This document was produced under the terms and conditions of Grant Agreement No. 101060075 for the European Commission. It does not necessary reflect the view of the European Union and in no way anticipates the Commission’s future policy in this area. The European Commission is not liable for any consequence stemming from the reuse of this publication. © BrightSpace, 2026 The reuse of this document is authorised under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CCBY 4.0) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This means that reuse is allowed provided appropriate credit is given and any changes are indicated. For any use or reproduction of elements that are not owned by the BrightSpace consortium, permission may need to be sought directly from the respective right holders. Project information BrightSpace Horizon Europe project Grant Agreement No. 101060075 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101060075CALL: Innovative governance, environmental observations and digital solutions in support of the Green Deal WORK PROGRAMME Topic ID: HORIZON-CL6-2021-GOVERNANCE-01-12 EU agriculture within a safe and just operating space and planetary boundaries BrightSpace Project coordination: Wageningen Economic Research, The Hague, NLContact: brightspace.wser@wur.nl | Website: www.brightspace-project.eu Project duration: 1 November 2022 – 31 October 2027