DP13302 Consumer Time Budgets and Grocery Shopping Behavior

Author(s):	Bart Bronnenberg, Tobias Klein, Yan Xu
Publication Date:	November 2018
Date Revised:	May 2020
Keyword(s):	consumer purchase behavior, Household production, retirement, time use
JEL(s):	D12, D13, J22, M31
Programme Areas:	Industrial Organization
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=13302

We construct a novel household panel data set that combines purchase records with information on labor market status and other demographics to study the relationship between purchase behavior and the availability of time. Our main results revolve around the question whether the availability of time also changes the types of products households buy. To answer this question we develop an approach to classify products according to the time it takes to turn them into consumption experiences and an empirical approach that builds on this classification. We find that the availability of additional time shifts a household's purchases towards more time-intensive market goods. Product- and retail-innovations aimed at reducing the time cost of household production are important drivers of demand in consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries.