Household food budgets offer a window on consumers' demand for convenience. During the 1980s and 1990s, three shifts likely promoted an increase in the share of the food budget devoted to convenient meal options, namely meals out and prepared foods: the growing number of hours that women spent in paid work, the growing opportunity cost of women's time spent doing housework, and the drop in the price of food relative to all other goods. I test whether the impact of these economic trends (on food budget allocation) was mediated by a change in the impact of children on household meal allocation. I find support for this hypothesis in a model of food away expenditures, which likely reflects two unmeasured shifts. First, (own) child care and household production of meals apparently became substitutes rather than complements. Second, a range of both prepared foods and family-friendly restaurants became available. The growing demand for time-saving meal options, including frozen food and meals out, has important implications for a core determinant of living standards: the ability to harness scale economies from home production of meals. I test whether greater reliance on convenient meals reduced household-level economies of scale. Other factors could mediate against, or even offset such a loss, including technological advances in the production and distribution of food. Using Engel curve analyses, I find that scale economies fell from 1980 to 2000, thereby reducing living standards; my lower- and upper-bound estimates of the drop are 44 percent and 110 percent respectively. Economies of scale are not simply a function of household size and composition, as standard equivalence scaling techniques suggest; they are affected by the ways that households trade non-market work and market substitutes. This dissertation contributes to the small literature that challenges the validity of fixed-parameter equivalence scales, such as the per capita scale, which ignore household production. I first attach plausible values to scale parameters and then compare equivalent-income trajectories of parents and non-parents across (standard) fixed parameter and (non-standard) time-varying equivalence scales. I present plausible lower- and upper-bound estimates of the rise in income inequality between parents and non-parents.

Univ., Diss.--Kiel, 2003. / Literaturverz. S. 157 - 168.

隨著時代的變遷，家庭結構出現了龐大變化。尤其在社會氛圍瀰漫著「不婚、不生」的風氣下，人口轉型的速度比起過去大幅增加。根據行政院主計總處的調查，近年來單人家戶以及夫婦兩人家戶占總家庭戶數的比重已增長至33.01%。因此，在「單人」、「頂客」家庭越來越多的情況下，不僅僅改變了社會型態，也改變了家庭的消費模式。所以說，本研究企圖利用家庭收支調查以及普查資料進行分析，並使用R軟體運算資料以及視覺化呈現空間資訊。其研究的方向與重點有三：第一，本研究旨在探討在不同背景條件下，會分別產生出何種樣貌的單人家戶以及頂客家戶類型，以針對各類型家戶進行人口樣貌與背景特徵的比較分析；第二，於分類後，結合2010年普查資料中的鄉鎮市區地理資訊，來歸納出不同的家庭類型其區域分布的差異；最後，再使用家庭等值規模尺度之概念，從家庭的收入、消費支出著手，以瞭解在不同的單人家戶、頂客家戶類型中，其消費樣態的差異為何？單人家戶是否能夠達到與頂客家戶相同甚至更高的生活風貌？並探究出單人家戶者究竟能否透過消費來實現「樂單」生活。 本研究結果發現，在分布與特性中，無論是在單人家戶抑或頂客家戶，個人的背景會影響其未來組成家庭的樣貌，大部分的青年人口皆為高學歷，也因為教育年限的延長以及晚婚，導致這些人成為單人家戶抑或是頂客家戶的比率也隨之成長。尤其是在單人家戶裡的青年人口，逐漸成為現代中不容小覷的一群，其比率僅次於第一高的離異單人家戶。而在區域分布的部分，可以發現，單人家戶與頂客家戶的高齡人口比例，已足以影響整體家戶區域分布的狀況，實有必要透過本研究中的五種以及三種分類加以說明，才能夠更為精確地描述出各家戶的分布狀況。 最後，在消費趨勢中，則可以發現，一個家庭位於不同生命週期以及不同家庭規模之下，會呈現出不同比例的消費特性，家庭中的所有消費，除單人戶之外，均須考慮到規模經濟的影響，所以，最後研究者利用等值規模尺度概念進行運算，得出在單人階段與年輕夫妻階段，於家庭收支調查所列的消費項目都有較高的消費支出，而單人家戶又比頂客家戶更高，因此，由本文即可證明，單人家戶的消費，的確能夠比起其他家戶更為自由，其消費會以精美、自我實現為最大考量，使自己能夠獲得享受獨居生活之樂趣，所以說，「樂單」一詞足以取代「孤單」，成為「單人者」的新興代名詞。 / As time goes by, the structure of family has made some changement. Especially under the atmosphere of “no marriage, no plan to give birth to a child” within this society, the speed of demographic transition has risen intensely than the old times. According to the survey of The Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) of Executive Yuan, the percentage of One-person household and Married-couple household have increased to 33.01% in all kinds of household. Hence, the increase of One-person, DINK household has not only change the social type but also the way of consumption of a family. This study attempt to analysis the changement by the Survey of Family Income and Expenditure and census data. I use R to run statistic data, and also to visualize space information. The research focus on three points: First, I would like to know what kind of One-person household and DINK household will be formed under different condition to do comparative analysis. Second, after categorizing, combined with the geography information in 2010. To distinguish the distribution pattern difference within each type of household. In the end, use the Household Equivalence Scale to see through the difference of consumption to be affected by income and consumption. If One-person household can be living at the same or even better than the DINK household? I would also like to know if One-person household can live their “Quirkyalone” life simply through consumption. According to the result, personal background will affect the future household feature both in One-person and DINK household. Most of the youth are highly educated, due to the extension of years of education and the postpone of going into marriage. These kind of persons are more likely to become One-person household or DINK household. Particularly the youth in the One-person household, their rate after the highest divorced One-person household. In the regional distribution, proportion of elderly population in the One-person and DINK household can affect the regional distribution of households. It needs to explain by the five and the three categories in this study, then precisely describe the distribution of household ratio. In the consumption trends, when a family at different stage and scale of life cycle will present different portion of consumption features. However, this proportionality is to ignore the fact that composition of One-person household is less than DINK household. Therefore, to take the effection of economies of scale into consideration, during single and newlyweds stage they have higher expense within the Survey of Family Income and Expenditure. Above all, the One-person household is higher than the DINK household. Thus, as a result, I can prove that the One-person household is more liberated than other household. They will take their self-fulfillment maximize into consideration while making consumptions. To increase the enjoyment of living alone. In a nutshall, “Quirkyalone” is a word that can replace “lonely”.