In analyzing food consumption patterns it is important to have full knowledge of who allocates household resources. In that regard the gender of the head of the household is of significance. Female-headed households (FHH) have become an important unit of analysis. It is generally argued that FHH are poorer than MHH, and that poverty in FHH is often difficult to eliminate. The motivation of this paper is to investigate differences in consumption behaviors of FHH and MHH, in Vietnam, assuming that the locus of decision-making rests on the individual identified as the head of the household. Data from the Vietnamese Living Standards Survey (VLSS) are used. Calorie shares are estimated using instrumental variable (IV) regression. The results from the study confirm the
general finding that FHH possess economic characteristics that are significantly different from those of MHH. The MHH in Vietnam tend to have larger families compared to FHH. The results also show difference in calorie intake and food poverty between FHH and MHH, in Vietnam. FHH in Vietnam
pay slightly higher calorie prices compared to MHH. The results show that incomes in FHH and MHH lead to significantly different expenditure in Vietnam.