Tayo ay nasa fine dining restaurant! dining out and work hours: do longer work hours lead to higher food-away-from-home spending among household heads?
Date
2025-06-05
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Abstract
With the growth and shifts in Philippine labor conditions and food consumption patterns, this study aims primarily to shed light on the interplay between the number of hours worked by Filipino household heads in a week and their corresponding food away from home (FAFH) consumption behavior. Using a manually merged dataset consisting of the 2023 version of Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) and Labor Force Survey (LFS), this study employed a Heckman two-step selection model, multinomial logistic regression (MLR), and marginal effects analysis to investigate how various employment-related and socio-demographic factors influence FAFH participation, expenditure levels, and type preferences across four FAFH categories: full service, limited service, canteens, delivery/others (with full service as the reference). Heckman results show that overworked household heads (those who work more than 40 hours per week) are more likely to participate in and spend more on FAFH, controlling for income and other variables. Furthermore, the results indicate that income has a positive effect on participation and expenditure (but with diminishing returns at higher levels), as well as urban locations (particularly in CALABARZON and NCR). On the other hand, older HHHs, larger family size, and male-headed households are more likely to participate on FAFH and spend less when they do. Moreover, results from MLR and marginal effects analysis show overworked HHHs are slightly more likely to prefer canteens and less likely to choose delivery, but the statistical significance of this relationship is weak. Work arrangements also affect preferences: home-based workers favor the delivery option, job rotation workers prefer full-service dining, and reduced hours workers do not prefer delivery use. Lastly, income plays a much stronger role where HHHs with higher earnings are more likely to opt for formal dining. Meanwhile, factors like age, education, gender, and family size, appear to have only a minor effect on the type of preferred food establishments.
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Keywords
Food away from home (FAFH), Consumption expenditure behavior, Labor conditions, Heckman procedure