Demand for prepared meals by US households

Using the 1987-88 NFCS, a Heckman two-stage procedure was used to estimate the demand for prepared meals by U.S. households. Prepared meals were defined as those ready to cat and those ready to cool;. Households headed by younger, more educated, and time-constrained managers were more likely to purchase prepared meals. Income elasticities ranged from 0.07 to 0.13, while own-price elasticities ranged from -0.23 to -0.66. Evidence exists to indicate that prepared meals and food-away-from-home are substitutes. The presence of teenagers in a household is positively associated with expenditures of prepared meals.