The decline of home‐cooked food

Griffith, Rachel, Jin, Wenchao Michelle and Lechene, Valérie (2022) The decline of home‐cooked food. Fiscal Studies, 43 (2). pp. 105-120. ISSN 0143-5671

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Abstract

The share of home-cooked food in the diet of UK households declined from the 1980s. This was contemporaneous with a decline in the market price of ingredients for home cooking relative to ready-to-eat foods. We consider a simple model of food consumption and time use that captures the key driving forces behind these apparently conflicting trends. We show that observed behaviour can be rationalised by the fact that the shadow price of home-cooked food, which accounts for the fact that cooking takes time, has risen relative to the price of ready-to-eat food, due to the increase in the market value of time of secondary earners. We discuss the implications for policies that aim to encourage healthier diets.

Item Type: Article
Keywords: Nutrition, Foodborne Illness, Cardiovascular, Cancer, Metabolic and endocrine, Stroke, Oral and gastrointestinal
Schools and Departments: University of Sussex Business School > Economics
SWORD Depositor: Mx Elements Account
Depositing User: Mx Elements Account
Date Deposited: 16 Sep 2022 10:58
Last Modified: 16 Sep 2022 11:00
URI: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/107964

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