Exploring the returns to scale in food preparation (baking penny buns at home)

Thomas Crossley () and Yuqian Lu
Additional contact information
Yuqian Lu: Institute for Fiscal Studies

No W05/03, IFS Working Papers from Institute for Fiscal Studies

Abstract:

We show that as household size increases, households substitute away from prepared foods and towards ingredients. They also devote more time to food preparation. These observations (1) are consistent with a simple model with home production, returns to scale in the time input to food preparation, and varieties of food that differ in the required time input; (2) support the idea that returns to scale in home production are an important source of returns to scale in consumption; and (3), mean that across household sizes, household market expenditures on food are not proportional to food consumption quantities. The latter may provide a partial explanation for a puzzle raised by Deaton and Paxson.

Keywords: Household returns to scale; home production; food preparation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D11 D12 D13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pp.
Date: 2005-01-27
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mic
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Working Paper: Exploring the Returns to Scale in Food Preparation (Baking Penny Buns at Home) (2004)
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