The Demand for Nutrients in China

China is experiencing a nutritional transition accompanied by its rapid economic growth. However, the relationship between income growth and nutritional improvement is still unclear. In contrast with the biased indirect method, this paper employs a direct method to estimate the income elasticities of 22 nutrients using household survey data to fill the gap in the current literature. Our results indicate that the income elasticities of most nutrients are smaller than that which is stated in the current literature using the indirect method, and vary for different income groups.