Using semiparametric models to study nutrition improvement and dietary change with different indices: The case of China

In company with rapid economic growth, Chinese consumers have seen a remarkable nutrition improvement and a dramatic dietary change. This article investigates the driving forces behind these changes with use of the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data. This paper first proposes 10 different indices to measure nutrition improvement and dietary change from different perspectives, and then adopts semiparametric panel data models to capture the complicated nonlinear relationship between these nutrition indices and income growth, while controlling for other variables parametrically. This enables us to directly predict the nutrition improvement and dietary change at different income levels from different aspects. This paper particularly finds that nutrition improvement and dietary change will continue in China but will slow down in the future with further income growth.