A Study of the Demand for Convenience Food

Abstract

A variation of the household production theory was used to select relevant explanatory variables for the demand for convenience foods. A convenience food index was used to measure the convenience in food preparation. Because of the nature of the measure of convenience, the Tobit regression technique was used to examine the importance of these explanatory variables to the demand for convenience foods. Results show that the presence of children in a household increases the demand for convenience, especially in those households that have children of different age groups. Results show that the number of end dishes eaten is positively related to the demand for convenience foods and primary users of convenience foods are non-black, single, and higher income respondents.

Keywords:

• convenience food
• demand
• tobit model