TV Dinner
The TV dinner β and other convenient innovations which emerged over the same period β have made a lasting economic impression.
The way educated women spend their time in the United States and other rich countries has changed radically over the past half a century. Women in the US now spend around 45 minutes per day in total on cooking and cleaning up; that is still much more than men, who spend just 15 minutes a day. But it is a vast shift from the four hours a day which was common in the 1960s. We know all this from time-use surveys conducted around the world. And we know the reasons for the shift. One of the most important of those is a radical change in the way food is prepared. As Tim Harford explains, the TV dinner β and other convenient innovations which emerged over the same period β have made a lasting economic impression.
Producer: Ben Crighton
Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon
(Image: TV Dinner, Credit: Shutterstock)
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Sources and related links
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Alison Wolf - The XX Factor, p80-85Μύ
Valerie Ramey - βTime spent in home production in the 20th centuryβ NBER Paper 13985 (2008)ΜύΜύ
Valerie Ramey - βA century of work and leisureβ NBER Paper 12264 (2006)Μύ
Cutler, David, Edward Glaeser and Jesse Shapiro - βWhy have Americans become more obese?β Journal of Economic Perspectives (2003) 17, no. 3: 93-118 doi:10.1257/089533003769204371ΜύΜύ
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50 Things That Made the Modern Economy
The stories of inventions, ideas and innovations which helped create the economic world
