CHANGES IN PERCEPTION OF COFFEE IN EU: LUXURY GOOD TURNED INFERIOR

Coffee is a very popular commodity on a global scale. Its consumption is somewhat influenced by the fact that coffee is addictive and potentially harmful to health. Using price elasticity, income elasticity, and subsequent multiple regression, the demand function for coffee is formulated on a sample of the EU countries. Our findings confirm that in today ' s Europe, coffee is considered an inferior good with almost perfect price inelasticity. This confirms the importance of coffee for everyday consumption, and at the same time, determines the awareness of potential health risks it possesses for consumers in the case of its excessive consumption. The obtained results could be applied in further analyses of coffee within the supply-demand chain, including new views on the heterogeneity of coffee as an economic asset.

Automated summary

The research findings indicate that in Europe, coffee is considered an inferior good with almost perfect price inelasticity, and it is important for everyday consumption; however, excessive consumption may pose potential health risks.