The Decline of Cooking Times in France, 1985-2009: opportunity cost of time, technology and Preferences

Abstract

Household cooking time has decreased by 16% in France between 1985 and 2009. We use the 1985 and 2009 Time Use Surveys and Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions to examine the contribution of changing opportunity cost of time, food technologies and preferences to this decline. The rise in women’s opportunity cost of time explains about 35% of the decline when they are in partnership. It has also had a positive impact on restaurant eating and food-away consumption, which varies by education level. Technologies (freezer, microwave) has had a large, negative but imprecisely estimated impact for these women. There are some changes in task sharing within couples, but the slightly greater participation of men is far from offsetting the observed decline of cooking times. Last, using subjective measures, we find no clear evidence that preferences for cooking would have changed. With Marie Plessz (INRA, ALISS).