Demand for Household Food Waste

Abstract

We estimate the demand for food waste within the household using observational data of food stock usage and meal consumption, the net of which forms a proxy for unconsumed food. We find that food waste is a luxury good with an expenditure elasticity ranging from 1.1 to 1.4. The wasting of food is also rather responsive to price: our own-price elasticity estimates range from -1.9 to -1.3. We further find differences in the demand for food waste related to household membership structure, human capital, joint preparation of meals within the household, and geographic location.