Income and cultural consumption in China: A theoretical analysis and a regional empirical evidence

Abstract

China's cultural consumption has experienced accelerating growth in the recent decade despite the slowdown of economic growth. This paper analyses the relationship between household income and cultural consumption using a representative agent model. By decomposing consumption into cultural and non-cultural components, we consider an additive utility function that displays a threshold of income above which cultural consumption arises. We also run numerical simulations on the extended model to estimate price and income elasticities of demand for cultural goods and services, and to evaluate the effects of cultural consumption promotion policies through various income and price subsidies which are currently practiced in China.