Assessing Demand Interrelationships for a Disaggregated Set of Dairy Milk Products and Plant-Based Milk Alternatives

An EASI model is adopted to investigate the demand structure for dairy and non-dairy milk types in the United States, using weekly time-series data from January 2017 to August 2023. The demands for almond, cashew, and oat plant-based milk alternatives (PBMA) and lactose-free and traditional white milk are elastic, but inelastic for coconut, rice, and soy PBMA and organic milk. Almond and oat are complements, while cashew and coconut are substitutes. Lactose-free milk, traditional white and organic milk are substitutes. CowÕs milk categories and each of the PBMA categories are substitutes. The respective dairy and non-dairy milk products are necessities.