Analysis of consumer behaviour in market and transitional economies : applications to Britain and China
Analysis of consumer behaviour in market and transitional economies : applications to Britain and China
This thesis is a microeconometric analysis of consumer behaviour in both market economies and economies in transition from a centrally planned to a market system. As examples, we take the UK (in Part One) and China (in Part Two) respectively.
In Part One we make use of Family Expenditure Surveys (FES) to test the relevance of different models of consumer behaviour for the UK. In Chapter 1 we test the Frisch demand model in the life-cycle context using pseudo-panel data constructed from FES of 1978-84 and also extend the Frisch model to incorporate the durables, together with non-durables and labour supply decisions. We find that the life-cycle theory cannot simultaneously offer a satisfactory explanation of the behaviour of household hour/wage decisions over both the life cycle and the business cycle. This is consistent with results based on earlier compatible data. Based on a less restrictive model we do not find evidence rejecting symmetry restrictions.
Chapter 2 is a cross-section analysis (using 1978 FES) of the effect of demographic variations on household commodity and leisure demand. The continuous representation of family age composition using cubic spline interpolation successfully explains the age effect on consumption of food, clothing, service, fuel, head of household leisure, but not for transport and vehicle consumption. The assumption imposed in Chapter 1 in the construction of pseudo-panel data, i.e. the constant marginal utility income among households whose heads fall into particular age cohorts, is also tested using seven cross-section FES data. We find that the marginal utility of income is not only related to the age of the head of household but also to other socio-demographic characteristics such as their educational attainment and occupation. This suggests that this crude assumption, implicit in aggregation, is not appropriate.
University of Southampton
Wang, Limin
b80385b5-b566-4702-8eed-321d904786bd
1994
Wang, Limin
b80385b5-b566-4702-8eed-321d904786bd
Wang, Limin
(1994)
Analysis of consumer behaviour in market and transitional economies : applications to Britain and China.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
This thesis is a microeconometric analysis of consumer behaviour in both market economies and economies in transition from a centrally planned to a market system. As examples, we take the UK (in Part One) and China (in Part Two) respectively.
In Part One we make use of Family Expenditure Surveys (FES) to test the relevance of different models of consumer behaviour for the UK. In Chapter 1 we test the Frisch demand model in the life-cycle context using pseudo-panel data constructed from FES of 1978-84 and also extend the Frisch model to incorporate the durables, together with non-durables and labour supply decisions. We find that the life-cycle theory cannot simultaneously offer a satisfactory explanation of the behaviour of household hour/wage decisions over both the life cycle and the business cycle. This is consistent with results based on earlier compatible data. Based on a less restrictive model we do not find evidence rejecting symmetry restrictions.
Chapter 2 is a cross-section analysis (using 1978 FES) of the effect of demographic variations on household commodity and leisure demand. The continuous representation of family age composition using cubic spline interpolation successfully explains the age effect on consumption of food, clothing, service, fuel, head of household leisure, but not for transport and vehicle consumption. The assumption imposed in Chapter 1 in the construction of pseudo-panel data, i.e. the constant marginal utility income among households whose heads fall into particular age cohorts, is also tested using seven cross-section FES data. We find that the marginal utility of income is not only related to the age of the head of household but also to other socio-demographic characteristics such as their educational attainment and occupation. This suggests that this crude assumption, implicit in aggregation, is not appropriate.
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Published date: 1994
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Local EPrints ID: 458591
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/458591
PURE UUID: 446f1f51-75cc-4525-8ca6-087dd20bafdb
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 16:52
Last modified: 23 Jul 2022 00:21
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Author:
Limin Wang
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