The impact of working wives' income on household food consumption and expenditures

Economic theory has utilized price and income elasticities of demand in measuring and explaining household food purchase behavior. While these elasticity coefficients have explained quantity change measurements with respect to different income and price levels, a more accurate explanation of the resultant elasticity coefficient may be obtained if causes of variations between households of given income levels can be established. To obtain this added information, a more detailed analysis, with the inclusion of variables in addition to price and income constituents, would be required.

An important source of additional income for households in the United States has been that earned by wives in the labor force. The 1960 Census of Population indicated that about 24 percent of all households in metropolitan Knoxville, Tennessee, had both the husband and wife gainfully employed. Results of this study indicate that approximately 26 percent of those households surveyed in Knoxville, Tennessee, had both the husband and wife in the labor force. The effect of the wives' household income upon household food purchases with respect to poundage and expenditure per capita is the primary concern of this study.