Economic crisis and the unemployment effect on household food expenditure: The case of Spain

- We estimate the (UEFE) for Spanish households during boom periods and crisis periods.
- The UEFE is negative in both boom and crisis periods, and its amount is enhanced in the latter.
- The magnitude of the UEFE during a recession is intensified mainly for economically disadvantaged households.

This paper examines the unemployment effect on food expenditure (UEFE) for Spanish households and quantifies its magnitude in boom and crisis periods. The results show that the UEFE was negative in both contexts but was reinforced during the economic crisis. Applying propensity score matching and difference-in-differences techniques to a sample of Spanish households for 2006 and 2013 (representative of a boom period and a crisis period, respectively), we found that the UEFE amounted to 2.9% in the boom period and to 4.5% in the crisis period. Quantile difference-in-differences estimates confirmed that the economic crisis enhanced the UEFE for Spanish households, with this effect decreasing continuously up to quantile 0.9. The UEFE was exacerbated mainly in those economically disadvantaged households.