Regression Decomposition Technique Toward Finding Intra-household Gender Bias of Calorie Consumption

From the data on total consumption of households, it is not possible to find the intra-household disparity in the consumption pattern among the members of the households. But if we are interested in the estimation of a certain aspects of consumption at the aggregate level, say mean calorie consumption of each of the different groups of members in the households, taking all households into consideration, then it is possible to estimate the same using Generalized Linear Regression Model (GLRM) after some modifications. In this chapter we first discuss the model and the method of estimation of the associated parameters of the model and then apply this technique to the 61st round National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) data on consumption to see whether mean consumption of calories varies among male and female members of the households. When these estimates are compared to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) norms, it is found that there is no indication of discrimination against the female members in the households.