IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/leu/journl/2012vol9issue1p28-58.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The time cost of access to food – Distance to the grocery store as measured in minutes

Author

Listed:
  • Karen S. Hamrick

    (Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

  • David Hopkins

    (retired, USDA Economic Research Service)

Abstract

Time use diaries are rich in information, including where and when respondents travel from place to place. Travel estimates, as well as variety of contextual information on travel, can be generated from time use data. However, using the data for travel analysis is difficult and involves detailed understanding of how the data are coded. Presented here is a methodology for estimating travel time using the time diaries from the 2003-07 Amer-ican Time Use Survey. As an illustration of the methodology, the authors estimate travel time to grocery shopping. These estimates are of interest as a policy concern in the United States is whether or not somepoor areas of the country have access to supermarkets that offer the variety of foods needed for a healthy diet, and in particular, fresh fruits and vegetables. Neighborhoods that have limited access to supermarkets are referred as “food deserts.” The authors found that individuals living in low-income areas with limited supermarket access spend significantly more time (an average of 19.5 minutes) traveling to grocery shopping than the national average (15minutes), and in addition, they grocery shop less frequently, and they are more likely to be accompanied by children during travel to grocery shopping.

Suggested Citation

  • Karen S. Hamrick & David Hopkins, 2012. "The time cost of access to food – Distance to the grocery store as measured in minutes," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 9(1), pages 28-58, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:leu:journl:2012:vol9:issue1:p28-58
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.eijtur.org/pdf/volumes/eIJTUR-9-1-2_Hamrick_Hopkins.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Scott R. Baker & Stephanie Johnson & Lorenz Kueng, 2021. "Shopping for Lower Sales Tax Rates," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 209-250, July.
    2. Printezis, Iryna & Grebitus, Carola, 2018. "Marketing Channels for Local Food," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 161-171.
    3. Ver Ploeg, Michele & Breneman, Vince & Dutko, Paula & Williams, Ryan & Snyder, Samantha & Dicken, Chris & Kaufman, Phillip, 2012. "Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Updated Estimates of Distance to Supermarkets Using 2010 Data," Economic Research Report 262227, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    4. Kimbrough, Gray, 2015. "Measuring Commuting in the American Time Use Survey," UNCG Economics Working Papers 15-2, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics, revised 01 May 2016.
    5. George Davis, 2014. "Food at home production and consumption: implications for nutrition quality and policy," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 565-588, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Time use; grocery shopping; food desert; trip chaining; transportation; food access; travel time;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:leu:journl:2012:vol9:issue1:p28-58. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Merz (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fbluede.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.