Home cooking time allocation and energy affordability poverty nexus: Empirical evidence from Ghana’s marine fishing communities

Abstract

Given the implication of household time allocation for its overall physical and economic well-being, this study examines how cooking time allocations influence households’ ability to afford cooking energy. It adds to the emerging discourse on the time use and energy poverty nexus, focusing on time spent on daily meal preparation and energy affordability. Descriptive analysis, multivariate logistic regression, and Lewbel Instrumental Variable estimation techniques are employed to analyse data from 1,184 households sampled across 51 of Ghana’s marine fishing communities. The descriptive results show that households devote an average of 3.36 hours to daily meal preparation, with half of all households (50.1%) preparing meals twice daily. Overall, 44% of households experience energy affordability poverty. The multivariate logistic (marginal effect = 0.041; p < 0.01) and Lewbel IV regression (coefficient = 0.122; p < 0.01) results reveal that longer hours spent on meal preparation positively influence energy affordability poverty. This association was also observed to be significant only for households using firewood, but not for those relying on charcoal or LPG. Heterogeneity analysis on gender, age, and location also shows positive associations, with male and adult households, as well as those in rural areas, experiencing greater effects than females, elders, and urban residents. Given the health, social, and economic benefits of home cooking, the study recommends the rollout of strategies that reduce the time loads associated with meal preparation, alongside complementary livelihood opportunities to ensure the productive use of freed-up cooking time.

Keywords

Energy affordability poverty / Cooking time use / Frequency of home cooking / Gender differentials

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Funding

the World Bank through the Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (ACECoR) at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana

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