Economic and demographic factors affecting US demand for lunch meats

Consumer demand analyses of meats have seldom included processed meats, particularly lunch meats. In this study, we examine retail lunch meat data from Nielsen 2006 Homescan. The objective of this study is to determine the impact of retail prices, expenditure, and demographic variables on eight lunch meat products. A censored AIDS model is used to estimate the demand for lunch meat products. Results reveal that own-price elasticities are elastic for all lunch meat categories. The expenditure elasticities are elastic for four lunch meat products and inelastic for the remaining products and demographic variables have statistically significant impacts on lunch meat purchases.