Off-farm employment and food expenditures at home and away from home

This paper investigates the extent to which off-farm employment by the farm couples affects food expenditures at home and away from home, by developing and estimating a dual treatment effect model. Off-farm employment by a farm operator is found to increase food expenditure away from home, but decrease secondary food expenditure at home. In contrast, full-time employment of the spouse off the farm decreases food expenditure away from home and staple food at home. No evidence is found on the relationship between spouse's part-time work off-farm and food expenditures at home. Oxford University Press and Foundation for the European Review of Agricultural Economics 2010; all rights reserved. For permissions, please email journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.