Women’s employment and the decline of home cooking: Evidence from France, 1985–2010

Fabrice Etilé and Marie Plessz
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Marie Plessz: Centre Maurice Halbwachs (EHESS, ENS, CNRS, PSL Research University) and INRA

Review of Economics of the Household, 2018, vol. 16, issue 4, No 3, 939-970

Abstract: Abstract We here investigate the extent to which labour-market changes explain the decline in the time spent home cooking by married women in France between 1985 and 2010. Using time use data and Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions, we find that rising women’s employment and observed wages together account for about 60% of the fall in the time married women spent cooking. We then use a semi-parametric matching technique to construct an implicit wage rate, which better reflects the change in labour-market incentives that individuals face. The rise in women’s implicit wages explains no more than 20% of the decline in their cooking time, while the wage of their partner has no effect. Changing labour-market incentives are thus far from being the main driver of the decline in home-cooking. We also find evidence that home cooking continues to be structured by the gendered social norm of the “proper family meal”.

Keywords: D13; I18; J22; Cooking; Household production; Labour supply; Wages; Gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Working Paper: Women’s employment and the decline of home cooking: Evidence from France, 1985–2010 (2018)
Working Paper: Women’s employment and the decline of home cooking: Evidence from France, 1985–2010 (2018)
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DOI: 10.1007/s11150-018-9423-3

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