Page "Giffen good" Paragraph 14

Evidence for the existence of Giffen goods has generally been limited.

A 2002 preliminary working paper by Robert Jensen and Nolan Miller of Harvard University made the claim that rice and wheat / noodles are Giffen goods in parts of China by tracking prices of goods.

A further 2007 working paper by the same authors ( now published in the September 2008 issue of American Economic Review ) experimentally demonstrated the existence of Giffen goods among humans at the household level by directly subsidizing purchases of rice and wheat flour for extremely poor families.

It is easier to find Giffen effects where the number of goods available is limited, as in an experimental economy: DeGrandpre et al.

( 1993 ) provide such an experimental demonstration.

In 1991, Battalio, Kagel, and Kogut proved that quinine water is a Giffen good for some lab rats.

However, they were only able to show the existence of a Giffen good at an individual level and not the market level.