Evidence of Engel curves in food away from home: A study of Malaysia

As Malaysians’ per capita income continues to grow, the food budget shares declines, which refers to Engel’s law. However, the statistics of the various Household Expenditure Surveys in Malaysia reported increasing food away from home (FAFH) budget shares which concerns whether the notion of Engel’s law can be extended to FAFH. By using Household Expenditure Survey 2004/05, the Heckman two-step procedure was applied with the Working-leser and other functional forms to conduct the Engel curves analyses. The empirical results exhibit the same observations as laid down in the Engel’s law. All the estimated expenditure elasticities of demand for FAFH were less than unity. Thus, this study verified that the notion of Engel’s law can be extended to FAFH in Malaysia.Engel’s law, food away from home, expenditure elasticity