Rising rice prices and food price volatility have made the analysis of factors influencing rice consumption in Indonesia increasingly relevant. This study aims to analyze the effects of prices of rice substitute commodities, as well as socioeconomic characteristics namely average years of schooling (AYS) and the provincial minimum wage (PMW) on rice consumption in Indonesia in 2023. The study uses cross-sectional secondary data from 34 provinces obtained from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the National Food Agency (Bapanas), and the Center for Agricultural Data and Information (Pusdatin). The analytical method employed is multiple linear regression using a Cobb–Douglas functional approach. The results show that, simultaneously, all independent variables have a significant effect on rice consumption, with the model explaining 59.8% of the variation in rice consumption across provinces. Partially, the price of potatoes has a significant positive cross-price elasticity of 0.259, indicating its role as a substitute for rice, while the price of maize exhibits the largest negative elasticity at −0.457, suggesting the absence of direct substitution and the strong influence of consumption preferences. From a socioeconomic perspective, the elasticity of average years of schooling is significantly positive at 0.472, reflecting the role of education in maintaining adequate staple food consumption, whereas the elasticity of the provincial minimum wage is negative at −0.083 but statistically insignificant, indicating a tendency toward food diversification as income increases that is not yet strongly supported empirically. These findings underscore the importance of considering relative food prices and socioeconomic characteristics in the formulation of national food policies.
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