Characteristics of Food Consumption in Single-Mother Households Suffering from Poverty in Japan

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze the characteristics of food consumption in very low income households ; thus, households consisting of a mother and children are focused on in the study. The expenditure elasticities of household food consumption are estimated by Engel functions by using corresponding data from the National Survey of Family Income and Expenditure. The main findings from the empirical study imply that the demand for homemade meals strongly depends on the economic situation, and single-mother households suffering from poverty affect food consumption patterns because of their serious time constraints.