This volume links the abstract theory of demand with its econometric implementation. Exercises lead the reader from elementary utility maximization to the most sophisticated recent techniques, highlighting the main steps in the historical evolution of the subject. The first part presents a brief discussion of duality and flexible forms, and in particular of Deaton and Muellbauer's ``almost ideal demand system''. Part two includes the author's work on true wage indexes, and on intertemporal utility maximization.
The study of consumer demand is important for a number of reasons. First, as total consumption absorbs more than 70 percent of GDP in most countries, it is the largest of the macroeconomic aggregates, thus having great significance for the state of the economy as a whole and business conditions. Second, the pattern of consumption contains a wealth of useful information regarding economic welfare and living standards. Closely allied to this is that as consumption (both current and future) is the ultimate objective of all economic activity and economic systems (mercantilists notwithstanding), in a fundamental sense consumption patterns are an objective way of measuring and assessing economic performance. Finally, an understanding of the price-responsiveness of consumption is of crucial importance for a host of microeconomic policy issues including public-utility pricing, the measurement of distortions, optimal taxation and the treatment of externalities. The analysis of consumer demand is one of the major successes of economics as it represents the near perfect marriage of theory and econometrics, a situation almost unparalleled in any other field of economics. This field has attracted a lot of attention since the introduction of the linear expenditure system and its application to British data by Stone (1954), followed by the differential demand system of Barten (1964) and Theil (1965, 1975176, 1980) and developments thereafter.
The modern system-wide approach to applied demand analysis emphasizes a unity between theory and applications. Its fIrm foundations in economic theory make it one of the most impressive areas of applied econometrics. This book presents a large number of applications of recent innovations in the area. The database used consist of about 18 annual observations for 10 commodities in 18 OECO countries (more than 3,100 data points). Such a large body of data should provide convincing evidence, one way or the other, about the validity of consumption theory. A PREVIEW OF THE BOOK The overall importance of the analysis presented in the book can be seen from the following table which shows the signifIcant contribution of the OECO to the world economy. As can be seen, the 24 member countries account for about 50 percent of world GOP in 1975. In this book we present an extensive analysis of the consumption patterns of the OECO countries.
Consumption is the primary economic activity in a post-industrial society. This volume shows how consumer behavior analysis fits within a larger-scale approach to marketing, consumer psychology, behavior analysis and organizational behavior management. It comprises articles originally published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Manage
Studies in Consumer Demand - Econometric Methods Applied to Market Data contains eight previously unpublished studies of consumer demand. Each study stands on its own as a complete econometric analysis of demand for a well-defined consumer product. The econometric methods range from simple regression techniques applied in the first four chapters, to the use of logit and multinomial logit models used in chapters 5 and 6, to the use of nested logit models in chapters 6 and 7, and finally to the discrete/continuous modeling methods used in chapter 8. Emphasis is on applications rather than econometric theory. In each case, enough detail is provided for the reader to understand the purpose of the analysis, the availability and suitability of data, and the econometric approach to measuring demand.
This book contains some of the results from the research project "Demand for Food in the Nordic Countries", which was initiated in 1988 by Professor Olof Bolin of the Agricultural University in Ultuna, Sweden and by Professor Karl Iohan Weckman, of the University of Helsinki, Finland. A pilot study was carried out by Bengt Assarsson, which in 1989 led to a successful application for a research grant from the NKJ (The Nordic Contact Body for Agricultural Research) through the national research councils for agricultural research in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. We are very grateful to Olof Bolin and Karl Iohan Weckman, without whom this project would not have come about, and to the national research councils in the Nordic countries for the generous financial support we have received for this project. We have received comments and suggestions from many colleagues, and this has improved our work substantially. At the start of the project a reference group was formed, consisting of Professor Olof Bolin, Professor Anders Klevmarken, Agr. lie. Gert Aage Nielsen, Professor Karl Iohan Weckman and Cando oecon. Per Halvor Vale. Gert Aage Nielsen left the group early in the project for a position in Landbanken, and was replaced by Professor Lars Otto, while Per Halvor Vale soon joined the research staff. The reference group has given us useful suggestions and encouraged us in our work. Weare very grateful to them.
The Behavioral and Welfare Analysis of Consumption covers a wide range of applications using modern parametric and nonparametric econometric techniques related to the behavioural and welfare analysis of consumption. The applications measuring the cost of children, equity and poverty in Colombia are based on the theoretical developments presented in literature during the 1990's. The Behavioral and Welfare Analysis of Consumption places special emphasis on the treatment of demographic characteristics and the interpretation of their effects both in demand and welfare analysis related to the estimation of equivalence scales, social welfare functions and micro-simulations of poverty. The Behavioral and Welfare Analysis of Consumption is a comprehensive and up-to-date reference intended for graduate and advanced undergraduate students interested in the applied fields of consumption economics, welfare economics, development economics and applied econometrics. The contents of the book may be of use also to institutions in the implementation of applied welfare policies of both developed and less developed countries and the analysis of household surveys in general.
