Consumption Basket Research Articles

Financial Inclusion and Household Welfare: An Entropy-Based Consumption Diversification Approach

State-led financial inclusion programmes have been implemented in many developing countries, but their effectiveness in raising welfare remains widely debated. In this article, we report evidence on this issue, against the backdrop of recent policy initiatives on financial inclusion in India. We employ Theil’s entropy-based index to estimate diversification in consumption expenditure, and use this as a measure of welfare. Using household-level panel data across all regions of the country, we find evidence that greater financial inclusion increases diversity in non-food items. Further, we also notice that there is a shift in consumption basket from food items to non-food items. These findings suggest an improvement in welfare for both rural as well as urban households.

Совершенствование оценки качества объектов товародвижения в условиях современных вызовов экономической безопасности

The article re-introduces the concept of «object of commodity movement», reveals the features of assessing the quality of objects of commodity movement, considering new directions of development in the field of their economic security. Real indicators of the dynamics of the consumer market characterize the shift in consumer demand towards cheaper and lower-quality goods, which threatens serious economic consequences for such an important direction of the country’s development as increasing the level of economic development in terms of increasing the welfare of the population, which is characterized by the quality of the consumer basket. In the context of the pandemic and the departure of business to the online mode of selling goods, quality assessment is moving to a more serious level of standardization of quality control.

The Extensive Margin of Aggregate Consumption Demand

Abstract About half of the change in U.S. non-durable consumption expenditure is due to changes in the products entering households’ consumption basket (the extensive margin). Changes in the basket are driven by fluctuations in the rate at which households add products; removals fluctuate little. These patterns reflect that, in response to income increases, households adopt consumer products already available in the market. Household adoption amplifies the effects of fiscal transfers on consumption by more than 30%. Cyclical household adoption of products also implies that inflation measures based on a representative household consuming all varieties available in the market underestimate true household-level inflation by as much as 1% per year over the Great Recession in the consumption categories covered by our data.

Consumer expenditure when positional concerns matter

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study which factors affect consumer expenditure and how, when positional concerns matter. It also investigates how consumers finance and reallocate their expenditure, and modify their consumer baskets when members of their reference groups spend more on positional goods, and they do not want to lag behind.Design/methodology/approachA literature review is presented, and then a new model is developed from a behavioural economic perspective. It describes how consumers with various risk attitudes reallocate their consumer expenditure and modify their consumer baskets when consumption externalities influence their relative consumption due to a positional game, but they want to “keep up with the Joneses”.FindingsConsumers with different risk attitudes finance and reallocate their consumption expenditures variously to sustain their relative positions. Risk-neutral, slightly and intermediately risk-seeking consumers achieve a lower utility level than others. They do not realise a utility-maximising consumer basket, as it includes a relatively low number of nonpositional goods, but this choice can be considered the best response in a positional game in order to sustain their relative position.Originality/valueThe relationship between positional and nonpositional goods is explicitly described. The model assumes that consumers can be classified based on their risk attitudes when positional concerns matter. It also describes how consumers with various risk attitudes reallocate their consumer expenditure when they want to sustain or improve their relative consumption in a positional game.

A magyar élelmiszer-vásárlás generáció-specifikus elemzése hazai primer kutatás eredményei alapján

THE AIM OF THE PAPER In our study, we analyzed Hungarian food buying habits from a generation-specific aspect. In the theoretical study of Hungarian food consumption, we focused on ethnocentric consumer behavior and the role of country of origin and origin in influencing purchases. Based on domestic and international relevant literature and research results, it has been confirmed that consumers have a more positive attitude towards products from their own region. The preference for regional products depends on a large extent on how the consumer perceives this information in the purchasing decision process. Several domestic studies have shown the motivations behind the preference for Hungarian products. As with intergenerational food buying and consumption patterns, there are many differences. METHODOLOGY In our primary research, we analyzed the extent of Hungarian food purchases as a function of age, using a standardized questionnaire that resulted in 1447 evaluable answers. MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS Based on our results, we found that the proportion of Hungarian foods in the consumer basket increases with age: the customers of Hungarian food typically come from the members of the Generation X. In the course of the analysis, we were also able to prove statistically that there is a correlation between age and the assessment of the reliability and quality of Hungarian food: Typically, respondents belonging to Generation X considered Hungarian food to be better and more reliable. RECOMMENDATIONS Among the younger members of Generation Z, there are still many insecure, non-preferential customers, among whom we believe that a well-targeted educational campaign that considers the specific values of the generation could successfully promote the consumption of Hungarian food.

Social minimum living standard in Russia: estimation methods

The minimum living standard of the population in Russia since 1992 is subsistence minimum (SM). It plays a significant social role as a criterion for the assessment of the need of households for social assistance. The methods for SM calculating were periodically changed, but the rate of absolute poverty was always measured by the share of the population with income below SM. The article considers in detail the methods for estimating SM, adopted in 2013 and based on normative-statistical approach. Analysis of the food consumption and the structure of consumer spending of poor households, based on Household Budget Survey 2012-2019, revealed their non-compliance with the SM that was effective up to and including 2020. Since 2021 estimation of poverty is made by statistical methods without calculating minimum consumer basket (Law № 473-ФЗ as of 29.12.2020). The poverty line is determined by the ratio to median income per capita, and the poverty rate is of relative character. Retrospective analysis of the dynamics in the per capita and median incomes of the RF population and the SM per capita for 2013-2020 makes it possible to estimate the difference in the rates of absolute and relative poverty and to understand what guided the developers of the law in determining the SM per capita at 44.2% of the median income and the value of SM for the main sociodemographic groups of the population for the year 2021. In addition, on concrete examples, by means of the logarithmic normal function used by Rosstat for calculation of the population income distribution, it is shown, at what ratio of the median income to the average, the rate of absolute poverty may be reduced by half as compared to 2019

A study of households’ intention towards solar panel installation case study: villagers of the northern regions of Iran

ABSTRACT Taking into account the devastating consequences of greenhouse gas emissions and therefore shifting energy from fossil fuels into renewable resources to achieve low-carbon societies has become one of the greatest challenges of our world. As a high-rate energy consumption country and carbon-intensive economy, Iran with its immense sun-kissed lands is greatly prone to develop the renewables’ share in its energy consumption basket. By implementing an integrated analytical model based on Diffusion of Innovation theory (DOI) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) this study has investigated households’ intention to apply solar panel technology for residential consumption. A total of 462 completed questionnaires were collected among villagers of Mazandaran to validate the proposed hypotheses by using structural equation modeling. Overall, a designed model that included the variables of compatibility, relative advantage, perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) explained 23% of the variances of households’ intention. While the results also confirmed significant paths from perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) to installation intention, the study concluded that due to the weaknesses in communication channels, lack of appropriate energy culture and unprepared social structure, achieving the objectives of solar panel development is a premature target for the current context.

What pandemic inflation tells: Old habits die hard

COVID-19 has led to changes in individuals’ consumption habits, which will cause the calculation of inflation based on the average consumption basket to give distorted information. Using debit and credit card spending data of Turkey, we build CPI weights and compute an alternative pandemic consumption basket price index for Jan 2020–Feb 2021. Our findings show that the pandemic inflation is higher than the official inflation rate during the first lockdown, suggesting a behavioral change in consumption. However, in the reopening period, old habits come back. During the second lockdown, the difference between the pandemic and the official inflation rates is trivial in comparison with the first lockdown.

The Assessment of Direct Agricultural Investment and Cash Transfer on Households in Malaysia: An Evidence of Compensation Mechanisms for Fuel Subsidy Removal

The objective of this study was to examine the impacts of introducing compensation mechanisms of direct agricultural investment and cash transfer for fuel subsidy removal, with particular focus on the income and consumption of all household segments in Malaysia. A computable general equilibrium (CGE) model was built on the basics of the standardized LöfgrenCGE model to conduct this study. The subsidy removal, without integrating any compensation mechanism, imposed additional burdens of living cost on households as fuel was one of the important elements of the consumption basket especially during the period of transition, thus indicating a need for this study. The ultimate results revealed that the introduction of direct cash transfer was more desirable for both the low-and the medium-income segments to live with high prices where their existing consumption level would be maintained. Comparatively, the direct agricultural investment by increasing the use of intermediate inputs in the production did not seem to be enough to help the rural low-income segment within the period, mainly because of reducing the factor income (factor reallocation effect), and exaggerating consumption expenditure subsequently. Thus, direct cash transfer was considered a direct and faster way to help the needy in the short term. However, the direct agricultural investment remained the best approach to gain long-lasting impacts; not only in helping the rural poor, who mostly dealt in agricultural activities, but also in motivating overall economic activities

Impact of COVID-19 on FMCG Sector

Coronavirus pandemic shows an unprecedented change globally, and the impact is even higher in emerging economies like India. Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) is one of the largest sectors in India with varied businesses, including household, personal care, etc., with high demand, consumed frequently, and services are provided for a low cost. This paper is an attempt to study the outbreak of COVID-19 in the FMCG sector. It shows that FMCG is affected uncommonly with many factors like Labours moved to their natives, logistics issues, and changes in the consumer basket like a sudden increase in demand for sanitary products and surged in demand for cosmetics.

Physical and economic aspects of the earliest Septuagint papyri

The physical features of the earliest LXX papyri provide clues to their provenance, ownership and intended functions. Additionally, we can approximate the production costs of these rolls on the basis of the dimensions of these papyri and papyrus prices and copying tariffs in documentary papyri. Early LXX manuscripts were priced from 27 to 103 drachmas in Egypt, depending on the length of the book and the spaciousness of the layout. Freight rates probably averaged around 30 per cent for transport from Alexandria to Jerusalem in the first century CE, making papyrus more expensive in Palestine. The incorporation of Egypt and Palestine into the Roman Empire reduced freight rates, so that papyrus became available to new circles in Palestine. For economic reasons, it is likely that Greek biblical papyri were copied in Palestine. A comparison with consumption baskets shows that only the elite and the ‘retainer class’ could afford these manuscripts.

Adapting and Modernizing the Post-Covid Marketing Policy Under the Impact of Consumption Challenges

The turmoil created by the COVID-19 pandemic in all components of the society has effects that become challenging for people and companies. This scientific approach aims at drawing attention primarily to the new trends in consumption and consumer behavior. The main trends identified are the reduction of expenses, the priority given to basic needs satisfaction, the changes of the structure of the consumer basket, the increasing digitalization, the increase of home delivery, the reorientation towards local shopping, the omnichannel services and increasing of the importance of the green content. The transformation, enrichment and improvement of marketing and especially of the marketing policy in accordance with the change of consumption is another objective of the research. Achieving these objectives will depend on the digital marketing practices and strategies and tactics of product, communication, distribution and price adapted to the new realities.

Household energy consumption behaviors in developing countries: A structural decomposition analysis for Brazil

Many studies have discussed the links between household income growth and energy consumption. However, the analysis of impacts on household consumption behavior and its effects on the energy sector has not yet been explored in significant depth for developing countries. Thus, this paper proposes an input-output structural decomposition analysis methodology for identifying the main determining factors for variations in energy consumption in a developing country, according to income class, energy source, and household consumption basket composition. The methodology was applied to analyze the repercussions of recent income growth in Brazil from 2002 to 2008. The structural decomposition analysis results showed an overall upsurge in per capita direct energy consumption, together with a significant increase in the energy embedded in goods and services consumed by Brazilian households. The methodology was applied to analyze the repercussions of recent income growth in Brazil from 2002 to 2008. The results showed that the distribution of energy consumption by income class accompanied the reduction of income inequality. Besides, the socioeconomic development process caused significant changes in household energy consumption patterns, such as increased electrification and access to more modern cooking sources, such as LPG, and public transport services for low-income families. Finally, the study recommends developing countries to use technical detailed structural models with a realistic representation of intersectoral relations and household behavior per income class, in order to improve their energy planning and policymaking focused on sustainable development.

Winners and losers: the distributional impacts of a carbon tax in Brazil

Through its NDC, Brazil pledged to reduce its GHG emissions by 43% below 2005 levels in 2030, respectively. Carbon pricing could play a key role in meeting this objective. However, a range of issues can emerge when introducing it. Among these issues, the distributional impact has been frequently highlighted as an obstacle to the public acceptance of such a mitigation policy. This paper examines the short-run welfare and emission effects of an economy-wide carbon tax on Brazilian households. The distributional impact is examined by estimating the tax burden relative to annual expenditures and changes in total GHG emissions across income levels, using tax rates consistent with the Paris Agreement and considering a lump-sum rebate that keeps the government revenue neutral. For this, we calculate energy-related GHG emissions coefficients from fossil fuel burning for the whole household consumption basket, and price and expenditure elasticities which account for the zero-expenditure and underdeclaration problems. Our results indicate that the incidence of the carbon tax is effective in reducing emissions in the short run, but imposes welfare losses, especially on the poor. The consideration of compensation mechanisms is critical when designing this type of environmental tax, specially in the context of a highly complex tax-system.

Comparison of two biophysical indicators under different landscape complexity

Ecological Footprint (EF) and Energy-Landscape Integrated Analysis (ELIA) estimate human societies’ imprint on nature. Both methods aim to provide overviews regarding biophysical society–nature interactions. The purposes of this article are to compare how EF and ELIA conceptualize human-nature relationships, and what results they produce when applied to the same landscape scale, in order to consider how their methodological similarities and differences can account for Land Use and Cover Change (LUCC). This conceptual comparison acknowledges the “ecocentric” perspective of EF adopted to relate end consumption baskets of human populations with the land biocapacities, and the “social metabolism” perspective of ELIA to take into account biophysical transformations and spatial distribution of matter-energy flows in different land uses. The two methods were applied to a case study of 46 municipalities in the Qazvin Province (Iran). These municipalities were grouped according to the values of the two methods by cluster analysis and correlated with landscape heterogeneity. The correlation analysis demonstrates that EF and ELIA indicators only overlap when landscape structure is highly simplified. However, lower accuracy of EF compared to ELIA as an indicator of socioecological impacts of different types of agricultural practices is confirmed. Although EF remains a useful indicator of unequal appropriation of Earth’s biocapacity, it does so by taking average patterns of food production and consumption as given. To distinguish environmentally friendly from degrading practices, more precise indicators at the landscape level such as ELIA are required for farmers, consumers and policymakers to choose more sustainable options in their decisions.

Az 50+ korosztály fogyasztói magatartásváltozásai - egy mélyinterjús kutatás eredményei

A TANULMÁNY CÉLJAI
 Kutatásunk célja, hogy megismerjük az életkor növekedéséből és az életúton történő változásokból adódó fogyasztási és vásárlási magatartásváltozásokat, valamint értékeljük ezek szubjektív érzékelését, különös tekintettel az idősödő korosztályra.
 ALKALMAZOTT MÓDSZERTAN
 Feltáró kutatásunkban mélyinterjúk formájában kérdeztük az idősödő fogyasztókat (50 év feletti mintán) az életútjuk során megélt és a későbbiekre várt fordulópontokról, az életkorukhoz kötődő kiemelkedő eseményekről, valamint a jelenlegi életkorukhoz fűződő viszonyukról. Az életúttörténeten belül vizsgáltuk az általuk legfontosabbnak tekintett 5 fordulópont mentén kialakult - szubjektíven érzékelt - fogyasztói magatartásváltozást.
 A LEGFONTOSABB EREDMÉNYEK
 A mélyinterjúk eredményei alapján a megkérdezett személyek főképp kategorizálva emlékeztek vissza életük fordulópontjaira (iskolák/munka/család/egészség), ezeket igazítva az időrendi sorrendhez. Az életeseményekhez nem minden esetben tudtak konkrét kronológiai életkort kötni, hanem jellemzően életkori sávokban szemléltették a váltások idejét. Átlagosan 8 fordulópontot említettek, mely számot erősen befolyásolja, hogy az adott személy mit tekint fordulópontnak az életében, de leggyakrabban 5 kiemelt, változást hozó életeseményről számoltak be. Ezen változásokat nehezen kötötték össze a fogyasztásbeli változásokkal – általánosítva említettek termékcsoportokat, és jellemzően az újonnan vásárolni kezdett termékcsoportokra emlékeztek az elhagyott termékekkel szemben.
 GYAKORLATI JAVASLATOK
 Mivel az életút változásaira irányított figyelem kevés teret engedett a megkérdezettek emlékezetében fogyasztói magatartásuk észlelésére, célravezetőbb a vásárlások irányából megközelítve elemezni a fogyasztói kosarak időbeni eltéréseit, majd ezekhez kapcsolni a fordulópontokat vagy életszakaszokat.
 Köszönetniylvánítás: A kutatás az Emberi Erőforrás Fejlesztési Operatív Program, EFOP-3.6.1-16-2016-00004 „Átfogó fejlesztések a Pécsi Tudományegyetemen az intelligens szakosodás megvalósítása érdekében”, valamint az EFOP-3.6.3-VEKOP-16-2017-00007 „Tehetségből fiatal kutató – A kutatói életpályát támogató tevékenységek a felsőoktatásban” című projektek támogatásával készült.

Consumption Baskets of Indian Households: Comparing Estimates From the CPI, CES and CPHS

A study of inflation requires a fixed consumption basket. The last pub- licly available data on household consumption baskets is from Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) 2011-12. A more recent source of data has been the CMIE Consumer Pyramid Household Survey (CPHS). In this paper we compare the weights of various commodities in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) series with the CES 2011-12 and the CPHS 2019. We first document the methodology of construction of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) includ- ing details on commodity classification, reference and recall periods. We find that while CPI is based on CES 2011-12, CPI weights closely match those of CES 2011-12 only once the sub-group ‘Housing’ is excluded from the total consumption expenses. For comparison with CPHS, we first map the CPHS commodities to CPI to make them comparable. We find the differences in some categories such as food, household goods and services are less than 2 percentage points. Differences in the shares of commodities such as transport and communication, health, education and intoxicants are larger.

РЕГУЛЮВАННЯ ОСНОВНИХ ФУНКЦІЙ ОПЛАТИ ПРАЦІ: ПРОБЛЕМИ ТА МЕТОДОЛОГІЯ УДОСКОНАЛЕННЯ СОЦІАЛЬНО-ЕКОНОМІЧНОЇ ПОЛІТИКИ

The article examines the problems of formation and implementation of socio-economic policy aimed at regulating the remuneration’ main functions in Ukraine, substantiates the methodology of its improvement. Measures to regulate remuneration under the national strategy for economic diversification and productive employment include: legislative balancing of basic standards and guarantees of living environment and wages; coordination of their quantitative and qualitative parameters in the current methods of social protection; optimization of approaches to the distribution and redistribution of added value and consumption funds of business entities; balancing, increasing the efficiency of the state strategy of the national economy’ innovative modernization according to urgent investment and infrastructure priorities. Remuneration as an economic category has an extremely significant impact on the results, achievements, prospects of the areas’ set of socio-economic policy and development, assessment of their justification quality, as well as implementation, monitoring, adjustment of priorities. This connection, which is determined by the role of human potential and social capital as a whole in the functioning of neo- and post-industrial economies, is growing stronger due to the global spread of relevant technological modes. Numerous problems of achieving and balancing the sustainable socio-economic development Ukraine, unsatisfactory economic diversification, modernization, efficiency at the level of the country, its regions and individual enterprises, relatively low level of living standards, quality of reproduction and motivations of the significant part of workforce to productive labor in the national economy require radical improvement of parameters and mechanisms for regulating both the processes and amounts of remuneration, as well as its inverse positive impact on the quality of Ukrainian socio-economic policy and development in general. The wages’ purchasing power is derived from the quantitative and qualitative parameters of physiologically sufficient and socially acceptable living norms and standards, embodied in the consumer basket and the subsistence minimum for able-bodied, minimum and average monthly wages.

Patterns of the Distribution of the Demand of End-Consumers among Retailers in the Zone of their Residence

Abstract The rapid development of retail and e-commerce is forcing marketing and logistics to be competitive and adapt to the demands of end-customers. At the same time, accurately determining the demand for goods allows to better understand customers and plan deliveries. The purpose of this article is to study the change in patterns of probability of choosing the option to purchase goods among end-consumers with and without the presence of e-commerce. The study consisted of research buyers, determining the probability of purchasing goods from “consumer basket” in the traditional way and over the Internet, which is considered for the example of one of the Kharkiv districts. The results develop e-commerce potential in Ukraine and are intended to determine the motives of consumers when choosing a shopping option.

Оценка уровня бедности в России: зависимость от методологии измерения

Poverty reduction is one of the main objectives of the state policy in the Russian Federation. In the decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 474 of 21.07.2020 «On the national goals of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030,» a target is determined - reducing the poverty level by half by 2030. To measure poverty in the Russian Federation until 2021, the absolute concept was used. Within the framework of this concept, it is planned to create a minimum standard on the basis of which the level of poverty was determined. In the Russian Federation, a consumer basket is adopted as a standard, on the basis of which the cost of living is calculated. The cost of living is the threshold for poverty. Since 2021, the methodology for measuring poverty has changed, the calculation is based on the relative concept, the median method is used to measure poverty. A number of countries also use the multidimensional poverty concept with a set of indicators to measure poverty. The article provides a comparative analysis of methodological approaches for poverty assessment. The article proves that the level of poverty depends on the methodological approach underlying its measurement. The author believes that only a multidimensional approach to measuring poverty will contribute to the development of effective public policies to overcome poverty.