Rural and Urban Household Food Demand in the Periods of Pre‐, Early, and Late COVID‐19 Pandemic: Estimation Using SUSENAS Microdata for Bengkulu Province, Indonesia

ABSTRACT Research comparing the impact of COVID‐19 on food demand in the rural and urban areas is urgently needed. This topic would give us important information about the differences in food demand in both areas in the pre‐, early, and late pandemic periods. Our paper estimates household food demand in the rural and urban areas of Bengkulu Province, Indonesia, in the three periods using the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System on SUSENAS microdata. We test the differences in food demand between the two areas and the three periods of the pandemic. We find that cereal demand is expenditure inelastic and meat demand is the most expenditure elastic in both areas in all periods of COVID‐19. Comparing the two areas, in all periods, households in the urban area consume less cereal, oil and coconut, coffee, tea, sugar, and seasonings, and more eggs and milk, fruit, and prepared food (on condition that the period is unchanged). The demand for fish and meat is higher in the urban areas in the pre‐ and early COVID‐19 periods. Vegetables and fruit are substitutes for each other in both areas in the pre‐pandemic period and only in the rural area in the early pandemic period, whereas they complement each other in the urban area in the late pandemic period. In the pre‐ and early COVID‐19 periods, meat is the easiest to substitute in both areas, but in the late COVID‐19 period, seasoning is the easiest. All the demographic variables are found to be necessary in our demand system.