TY - JOUR
T1 - Household time activities, food waste, and diet quality
T2 - the impact of non-marginal changes due to COVID-19
AU - Scharadin, Benjamin
AU - Yu, Yang
AU - Jaenicke, Edward C.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - In early 2020, a novel coronavirus quickly spread across the globe. In response to the rapidly increasing number of confirmed U.S. cases, state and local governments suggested social distancing, issued stay-at-home orders, and restricted travel, fundamentally changing how individuals allocate time. Directly impacted time activities, such as work, eating food away from home, grocery shopping, and childcare significantly impact two food-related topics: household food waste and diet quality. In order to investigate these non-marginal time changes, we predict weekly time allocated to seven activities for households in the National Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey using information from the American Time Use Survey. Jointly estimating household production functions for food waste and diet quality, we find that time events that are related to fresh produce consumption, such as increased grocery store trips and time spent in FAH activities, are related to higher diet quality, but lower food waste. While time events that are associated with quick convenient meals, such as time spent in secondary childcare and work time, are also associated with lower food waste, these events decrease household diet quality. We then predict the level of household food waste and diet quality for three COVID-19 scenarios: one where the household head is likely able to work remotely, another where the household head is likely to lose their job, and a third, where the household head is likely to be considered an essential worker. Households without children that are likely able to work remotely are predicted to have lower levels of food waste and higher diet quality, while households without children in the other two COVID-19 scenarios are predicted to have only minor differences.
AB - In early 2020, a novel coronavirus quickly spread across the globe. In response to the rapidly increasing number of confirmed U.S. cases, state and local governments suggested social distancing, issued stay-at-home orders, and restricted travel, fundamentally changing how individuals allocate time. Directly impacted time activities, such as work, eating food away from home, grocery shopping, and childcare significantly impact two food-related topics: household food waste and diet quality. In order to investigate these non-marginal time changes, we predict weekly time allocated to seven activities for households in the National Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey using information from the American Time Use Survey. Jointly estimating household production functions for food waste and diet quality, we find that time events that are related to fresh produce consumption, such as increased grocery store trips and time spent in FAH activities, are related to higher diet quality, but lower food waste. While time events that are associated with quick convenient meals, such as time spent in secondary childcare and work time, are also associated with lower food waste, these events decrease household diet quality. We then predict the level of household food waste and diet quality for three COVID-19 scenarios: one where the household head is likely able to work remotely, another where the household head is likely to lose their job, and a third, where the household head is likely to be considered an essential worker. Households without children that are likely able to work remotely are predicted to have lower levels of food waste and higher diet quality, while households without children in the other two COVID-19 scenarios are predicted to have only minor differences.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102693994&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85102693994&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11150-021-09555-w
DO - 10.1007/s11150-021-09555-w
M3 - Article
C2 - 33746659
AN - SCOPUS:85102693994
SN - 1569-5239
VL - 19
SP - 399
EP - 428
JO - Review of Economics of the Household
JF - Review of Economics of the Household
IS - 2
ER -