Dramatic spikes in food prices, like those observed over the last years, represent a real
threat to food security in developing countries with severe consequences for many aspects of
human life. Price instability can also affect the intra-household allocation of time, thus
changing the labour supply of women, who traditionally play the role of ‘shock absorbers’.
This paper explores the nature of time poverty by examining how changes in the prices of the
two major staples consumed, matooke and cassava, have affected the paid and unpaid
labour time allocation in Ugandan households. We exploit the panel nature of the Uganda
National Household Survey by adopting a Tobit-hybrid model. Our results show that gender
differentials in the intra-household allocation of labour actually occur in correspondence with
changes in food prices. We find that, overall, women work significantly more, since the
additional hours women work in the labour market are not counterbalanced by a relevant
reduction in their other labour activities. For men, we do not find any significant effect of price
changes on hours of work.