Working women and expenditures on food away-from-home and at-home in Spain

Spain currently is experiencing rapid cultural and economic changes that influence food markets. In. this paper, the selection and purchase of food away from home and at home in Spain are modeled in a two-stage process using switching regression techniques with explicit accounting for the value of women's time available for household production. The empirical results show that the value of women's time, income, and household demographic variables are important determinants of both participation in the market for and expenditures on food away from home. The paper concludes that high-income, young families with few children and employed family heads are more likely to consume food away from home and also to spend more than others on food away from home.