Poverty, Food Consumption, and Economic Development

Maneka Jayasinghe is Senior Lecturer in Economics and Head of Business Discipline in the Asia Pacific College of Business and Law at Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia. She received her B.A. in Economics from the University of Colombo (Sri Lanka), Masters in Public Policy from National University of Singapore (Singapore), and her Ph.D. in Economics from Griffith University (Australia). Prior to joining academia, Maneka has also worked at German Technical Cooperation (GIZ) and UNICEF, Colombo, Sri Lanka. She has published a number of papers in international refereed journals, such as Energy Economics, Applied Economics, Social Indicators Research, Journal of Happiness Studies, and Food Policy, in the area of poverty, well-being and consumption economics. She is co-author of "Household demand for consumer goods in developing countries: A comparative perspective with OECD countries" to be published in 2022.

Introduction.- Consumption economies of scale and Engel equivalence scales.- Socio-economic and demographic characteristics of Sri Lankan households.- Link between income and economies of scale.- Economies of scale in home-grown food consumption.- Implications of access to electricity on food consumption economies of scale and household welfare.- Domestic technology adoption and consumption economies of scale.- Gender, food consumption economies of scale and poverty.- Conclusion and policy implications.