Inequality of vegetable consumption in Guatemala

Abstract

Guatemala is a country with high social and economic inequality, which according to national research, is observed in the distributions of land, income, education, academic skills and consumption of meat foods. The aim of this research was to analyze inequality in the consumption of vegetables. The database of the 2014 Living Conditions Survey was used. The methodology used considered three stages of analysis.  In the first stage, percentages of households that consume vegetables, average consumption per household, coefficients of variation and Gini coefficients of the consumption of each vegetable were calculated.  Then, using regressions, the relationships between the percentage of consumer households, coefficients of variation and Gini coefficients were analyzed.  In the second stage, the information was grouped by household expenditure quintiles to make comparisons of proportions of consuming households and average consumption of six selected vegetables to perform decompositions of their Gini coefficients (tomato, onion, green beans, cauliflower, celery and peas).  Comparisons of proportions and means were made with the Marascuilo and Scott-Knott tests. In the third stage, with the Dagum approach, the Gini coefficients of the six vegetables in the second stage were decomposed.  It was found that the Gini coefficients ranged between 0.38 and 0.89; vegetable consumption increases to the extent that households have greater economic opportunities, consumption inequality and the percentage of consuming households have a negative relationship; and that inequality within quintiles provides almost one fifth of the magnitude of the Gini coefficients and four fifths come from inequality between quintiles.