Personal Consumption Research Articles

Day-level examination of ego-network effects on college students' alcohol consumption.

Egocentric social network analyses show that drinking habits of college students' friends predict personal alcohol consumption. To date, most of this research focused on between-person, cross-sectional, or long-term longitudinal designs to evaluate these effects. This study used intensive longitudinal methods to examine episode-specific effects of social networks (network drinking, network composition) on college students' drinking, comparing within-person and between-person effects on individual episodic drinking, and highlighted social network characteristics that might be targeted for intervention. College students (N = 1,151, 54% female, Mage = 19.26, 81% White) identified their ego network: five close alters (e.g., friends, family) whom they met frequently. For 30 days using an internet-based diary, participants reported their daily drinking levels, indicated whether they met with each alter the previous night, and reported how many drinks each alter consumed. Two-part multilevel models were used to examine participant drinking. At the within-person level, when a higher proportion of a participant's ego network drank and when network total drinks were higher than average, the odds that a participant drank were significantly increased, and if they did drink, they consumed more alcoholic drinks than usual. Participants were more likely to drink on days when their network was comprised of more friends and more opposite-gender alters. Findings provide preliminary evidence that daily network drinking appears to influence drinking patterns and quantities among students. Such information could be used within ecological momentary interventions to prevent harmful drinking patterns such as heavy drinking episodes and incapacitation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Anti-Pastoral and the Prophetic Mode in Moddi’s Climate Songs

This article explores aspects of apocalypse and pastoral in the climate themed song lyrics of Norwegian indie folk artist Moddi. Through close listening and contextualizing of the songs “Noens ark” (“Someone’s ark”, 2013) and “En sang om fly” (“A song about planes”, 2013), apocalypse and pastoral emerge as key motifs. These are navigated in an exploration of a conflicted Norwegian response to global warming. The songs express critique of unrelenting pursuits of economic growth and personal consumption even as the future imposes itself on the present. In two different ways, elements of indie folk music are tailored to express an ontologically unsettling encounter with a global environmental risk scenario. “Noens ark” employs forceful instrumentation and polyrhythms to evoke a sense of alarm and urgency called for by the projection of future disaster. “En sang om fly” is a soft composition projecting nostalgia for the material conditions of the present. The desire for these conditions ultimately locks the singer in a cycle of repetition that destabilizes the very conditions he desires. The nuances afforded by this expression in musical performance allows song lyrics to sustain contradictory attitudes towards globalization. In their pursuit of these contradictions, Moddi’s climate songs can be seen as part of an anti-pastoral tradition. Features of musical genre and a prophetic lyric mode are employed to evoke and subvert a pastoral response to apocalypticism. By musically sustaining contradictions between pastoral and apocalypse, Moddi’s songs reflect a conflict between Norwegian identity and a global cultural imaginary in the face of global warming.

Determinants of the consumption of ultra-processed foods in the Brazilian population.

This article aims to evaluate the sociodemographic determinants of ultra-processed foods (UPF) consumption in the Brazilian population ≥ 10 years of age. The study used data from the personal and resident food consumption module of the Family Budget Surveys, grouping foods according to the NOVA classification of food processing. The classification and regression tree (CART) was used to identify the factors determining the lowest to highest percentage participation of UPF in the Brazilian population. UPF accounted for 37·0 % of energy content in 2017-2018. In the end, eight nodes of UPF consumption were identified, with household situation, education in years, age in years and per capita family income being the determining factors identified in the CART. The lowest consumption of UPF occurred among individuals living in rural areas with less than 4 years of education (23·78 %), while the highest consumption occurred among individuals living in urban areas, < 30 years of age and with per capita income ≥ US$257 (46·27 %). The determining factors identified in CART expose the diverse pattern of UPF consumption in the Brazilian population, especially conditions directly associated with access to these products, such as penetration in urban/rural regions. Through the results of this study, it may be possible to identify focal points for action in policies and actions to mitigate UPF consumption.

The Impact of Digital Finance on the Efficiency of Urban Green Economy

Digital finance is a new financing model for small and medium-sized enterprises and individuals. In recent years, with the rapid development of big data, cloud service technology, and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, it has to some extent promoted the efficient development of urban green economy. From the perspective of applying digital finance to urban enterprises and individual consumers, this study explores the important role of digital finance in enterprise investment and financing services, industrial structure upgrading, technological innovation, and the promotion of personal credit, consumption patterns, job employment, and environmental participation activities. Based on this, the impact of digital finance on the operation and efficiency improvement of urban green economy is obtained, and the problems of inadequate digital transformation and low coordination level in different industries of the city's economy are solved.

Strategi Mengembangkan Ekonomi Lokal melalui Pelatihan Pengolahan Jamu menjadi Usaha Kecil dan Menengah bagi Ranting Aisyiyah Wangkal

Jamu is a traditional concoction part of Indonesia's cultural heritage and traditions which has been passed down from generation to generation and is used as a treatment to treat minor illnesses, prevent disease, and maintain the body's resilience and health. Herbal medicine can be made from rhizomes, leaves, seeds, fruit, flowers, and the bark of herbal plants that can be found in the surrounding environment. Aisyiyah Wangkal Branch already has a medicinal plant cultivation program which will later be processed into herbal medicine for personal consumption, becoming a potential that can be developed. This training aims to empower existing potential by developing processed herbal medicine products which were originally only for personal consumption to become products that can be bought and sold and can add value to the economy, increase income and expand employment opportunities

Analysis And Evaluation of The Budgetary Effectiveness of The Introduction of The Customs Procedure of The Customs Warehouse in The Implementation of Cross-Border Electronic Commerce

In the context of the modern approach to organized cross-border electronic commerce, it becomes obvious that a sufficient level of demand for goods supplied from foreign Internet sites and distributed for the purposes of personal consumption of citizens is being formed. However, at this stage of regulation of cross-border trade, the following tasks remain unresolved: assessment of the applied practice of cross-border electronic commerce using customs warehouses in foreign countries; assessment of export-import potential for conducting cross-border operations in the Russian Federation, implemented in conditions of cross-border electronic sales. It is also necessary to have a bond policy for storing, saving and declaring goods imported from international trading platforms in Russia. In connection with the above, the article presents some results of the analysis of foreign practice in the fi eld of foreign cross-border trade. Problems have been identifi ed in the organization of foreign trade between Russia and the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. The intermediate facts of the customs experiment in the EAEU are outlined, including the need for duty-free storage of foreign goods placed under the customs warehouse procedure. A new system of indicators is needed to assess the budgetary and socio-economic eff ectiveness of measures for the functioning of customs warehouses. As a result of the research, the article proposes algorithms for calculating the budgetary efficiency of introducing the customs procedure of a customs warehouse within the framework of activities in the single economic space.

Cracking the Wealth Puzzle: Investigating the Interplay of Personal Finance, Expenditure Behavior, and Financial Management

This paper investigated the wealth puzzle by examining the relationships among personal finance (PF), expenditure behavior (EB), and financial management (FM). Data from a diverse sample of 2000 individuals across regions such as Kosovo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Turkey, Pakistan, Nepal, Uganda, Cameroon, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Albania, Oman, and Egypt were collected through an online questionnaire from 2023 to 2024, and processed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses using AMOS and SPSS programs. Results revealed the robust relationships among PF, EB, and FM, indicating their resilience and strong internal consistency, and underscoring their pivotal role in shaping individuals’ financial stability and well-being. Notably, EB emerged as a crucial determinant, highlighting the importance of aligning spending habits with family priorities, moderating excesses, and consistently reviewing for improvements. Moreover, critical variables within PF and FM underscored the necessity for strategic financial planning, efficient spending optimization, and the cultivation of resilience against unforeseen financial obstacles. This research has significantly advanced the understanding of wealth dynamics and provided practical insights for policymakers and educators to design targeted financial education initiatives that can improve financial well-being and long-term prosperity. Future research should concentrate on understanding underlying mechanisms and assessing intervention effectiveness across more variables and countries.

The Influence of Risk Perceptions on Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Nutrient-enhanced Microgreens

Microgreens are young plants used as ingredients and flavoring in various dishes. Their production time is short, and their production methods can be altered to enhance the nutritional content. To date, consumers’ preferences for microgreens that display different esthetic and nonesthetic traits have not been addressed. Additionally, consumers’ perceived risk of production methods used to enhance nutrition has not been investigated. An online survey and choice experiment involving a sample of 821 consumers in Tennessee were performed to investigate these topics. A mixed logit model was used to analyze the data. Both esthetic and nonesthetic traits influenced the consumers’ preferences. Green microgreens were preferred and valued more than light or dark purple microgreens. When fertilizer was used during production to enhance nutrients, consumers perceived the microgreens as riskier to the environment and for personal consumption relative to microgreens with light-induced nutrient enhancement. Using lighting during production to enhance nutrients generated a $0.47 to $0.79 premium relative to no nutrient enhancement. In general, if participants’ perceived risk aligned with the nutrient enhancement attribute (i.e., light, fertilizer), then their willingness to pay for the microgreens decreased. This was amplified for the fertilizer nutrient enhancement attribute more than it was for the light enhancement attribute. In-state production and microgreen height also impacted consumer preferences for microgreens.

The evolution of animal-based dietary structure has contributed to the increase of healthcare expenditures in China

The trends of diversified diets in China have generated a growing number of nutritional health problems, and healthcare investment is bearing a large burden from the diets, hindering the economic progress of the country and its residents toward affluence. This study linked the evolution of the Chinese dietary structure to changes in health expenditures and predicts future dietary patterns and their impact on health costs over the next 30 years. We found that in the past 30 years, the Chinese dietary structure has shifted towards a nutritional surplus type, and the structure of health expenditures has also shown a trend of two increases and one decrease. The consumption of plant-based foods is significant correlated with lower health expenditures, and animal-based foods show a significant impact on increase of health expenditures. Among nutrients, fat is significant correlated with increased health expenditures, whereas calorie intake is significant correlated with lower health expenditures. By 2030, the Chinese dietary structure will still evolve to a high-protein and high-fatty type. This shift will result in a decrease in per capita healthcare expenditure by 41.66 yuan and increases in household, state, personal, and total healthcare expenditures by 76.83 yuan, 18.76 billion yuan, 95.28 billion yuan, and 17.67 billion yuan, respectively. These findings demonstrate that adjusting dietary structures will bring the dual benefits of improved national health status and a favorable cycle of health expenditures.

The Private Health Insurance Underwriting Cycle, Economic Profits and Their Determinants

The underwriting cycle in private health insurance refers to fluctuations in profit margin over time. This research, a novel effort, aims to understand the peak-to-trough magnitudes and determinants of the industry-wide underwriting cycle. Historical industry-wide profits and losses have not been previously estimated, making this study a significant contribution to the field. Based on the reports of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (national health expenditures reports), this study begins by constructing the underwriting cycle of private health insurance performance over the last six decades, from which profit margins can be estimated. Expressing the net cost of private health insurance and personal health expenditures as a fraction of the premium facilitates the analysis, which employs standard methods. The results show, over a 62-year period from 1960 through 2022, that there are 12 underwriting cycles. The capacity to generate profits is influenced by the cost of personal healthcare expenditures, competition for enrollment, and the availability of substitutes. Evidence of reduced capacity for profitability is a finding that additional enrollment does not contribute to profits and that private health insurance enrollment is generally declining. Cumulative profits due to the sales of private health insurance only over the 62 years assessed are negative.

The effect of air pollution on defensive expenditures: Evidence from individual commercial health insurance in China

To mitigate the substantial losses incurred by air pollution, individuals undertake defensive behaviors in the form of health insurance expenses. Leveraging data from the 2011–2017 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) encompassing 3033 residents, we estimate the causal impact of air pollution on defensive expenditures. Our findings are as follows: (1) Air pollution exhibits a significantly favorable effect on individual commercial health insurance expenses, with a 1% increase in PM2.5 concentration correlating to an 11.02% rise in personal commercial health insurance expenditure. (2) Demographics such as younger individuals, married populations, lower educational attainment cohorts, and urban residents, displaying higher sensitivity to air pollution, tend to purchase more insurance coverage. (3) Risk perception emerges as a pivotal channel through which air pollution affects commercial health insurance expenditure. Our conclusions underscore the significance of risk perception in defensive expenditures, thereby optimizing individual risk mitigation strategies.

Personal Consumption and Single Persons: An Update

Abstract Kurt V. Krueger’s seminal study used 2005-2009 Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) data to examine various measures of personal consumption rates for single persons. Given changes in survey methods, the impacts of inflation over the following decade, changes in tastes and other factors affecting consumer demand, we re-estimate Krueger’s measures using 2015-2019 survey data. The estimation of estate accumulation rates has expanded as well. Single person expenditures and consumption rates using the 2015-2019 data differ from the earlier results. They also differ from those acquired by deflating 2019 earnings to 2009 values and using the 2005-2009 consumption rates. Experts may find it useful to employ single-person expenditure rates using more recent data.

Legal analysis of the definition of “consumer” in the context of Chinese law

Ensuring the consumer’s interest is one of the basic tenets of the market economy and legal regulation of consumer relations, and therefore, it is necessary to properly consolidate the conceptual framework in consumer law, including in China. Therefore, the purpose of the article was to define the essence of the concept of “consumer” in general and as an element of consumer protection, to analyse it under Chinese law, and to formulate discursive provisions and applied conclusions aimed at improving Chinese and Ukrainian consumer law. The main results of the study were the identification of the existing approaches to the interpretation of the concept of “consumer” and the characterization of the theoretical and applied foundations of the existing legal framework for the definition of “consumer”. It was substantiated that the current Chinese legislation enshrines a narrow concept of “consumer”, defining it as an individual who purchases or uses goods or receives services in order to meet his/her daily needs. It has been previously proved that a consumer should be considered a natural person who purchases a product or service for personal use or consumption, without the purpose of their further sale. The author analysed the socio-legal development of the concept of “consumer” in the People’s Republic of China in the context of individualization processes, and establishes that there are different types of consumers depending on their legal status and consumer needs. The author described examples from the national case law concerning the legal construction and interpretation of the definition of “consumer”. It is substantiated that regular updating of legislation on consumers and their status will stimulate more effective protection of consumer rights and increase the degree of responsibility in consumer legal relations. It was concluded that the formation of the consumer protection institute in Chinese legislation should be consistent with the level of development of market relations, and should take into account practical experience and international standards in the relevant area

(Invited) Wearable Flexible Microfluidic Biosensor for Sweat Monitoring

As we enter the post-pandemic era, our lives have certainly become more convenient than before, due to the advancement and elimination of technologies that became practical or widespread during the pandemic. Among these, technologies related to non-invasive bioinstrumentation, which can be used at an individual level to access one's own health information, have become increasingly important. Non-invasive bioinstrumentation can be broadly divided into the measurement of physical information (shape, activity and so on) and the measurement of chemical information, i.e. the components of the body. For example, facial shape is widely used for personal identification, while weight and energy expenditure related to activity are easily managed by smartphones. In contrast, chemical sensing, which is often difficult to sample and requires a wet environment for measurement, still requires breakthroughs to be used by individuals with the same ease as physical sensing.In the research field of non-invasive biomedical measurements, the technology is often developed in the form of wearable systems. Wearable microfluidic devices have been intensively studied for the measurement of body components. We focused on sweat, which contains a variety of biomarkers, and have developed a wearable microfluidic biosensing system that measures sweat components in real-time. Sweat is secreted from sweat glands on the skin of the entire body, making it easily accessible and less mentally demanding to collect. On the other hand, there are problems with sampling methods for reliable measurement, such as large fluctuations in the sweat rate and evaporation from the skin surface during secretion. We overcame this problem by using a wearable microfluidic device to transport the full amount of sweat from the sweat gland to a downstream biosensor by carrier flow, and developed a wristwatch biosensing system to monitor the constituents released as sweat independent of sweat rate.The wristwatch sweat sensor consists of a PDMS sweat sampling device, a biosensor, a fluid controller and a wireless control circuit with Bluetooth Low Energy and external analogue I/O. Communication with the mobile device is via Bluetooth Low Energy. Our method has the advantage that secretions are transported by dissolution in the carrier stream and can therefore be reliably monitored even at very low sweat levels. The pump is controlled by an microcontroller unit, so the flow rate can be controlled in real time according to the sweat rate and target substances, and the sensitivity can be improved at the expense of temporal resolution by running the pump intermittently, i.e. allowing secretions to accumulate in the carrier flow for a certain time before measurement.We monitored changes in sweat lactic acid in response to exercise load using an ergometer. The results showed an increase in sweat lactate with increasing exercise intensity, with a dependence on sweat rate. By measuring sweat at rest, we found that the lactate accumulated in the sweat glands and on the skin's surface were dissolved by the biosensor in the early stages of measurement, while the signals from the sweat glands became dominant after these had been sufficiently decreased. These results suggest that our system appropriately reflects the physiological phenomena associated with sweating. The presentation will also include the behaviour of lactic acid in sweat, which was detected by our system for the first time.

Concerned about Climate Change and Ready to Take Action? An Analysis of the Pro-Climate Actions Individuals Are Motivated to Take to Lower Their Carbon Footprints

Lifestyle changes are recognized as an important part of climate change mitigation. The influence of climate concern on taking individual actions for climate mitigation is well studied; however, the impact that climate concern has on consumption-based carbon footprints (CBCFs) is less studied. We aim to address this gap by examining the relationship of pro-climate actions, climate motivation, and CBCFs. We utilize data from a carbon footprint calculator with around 8000 responses from residents of the Nordic region. Respondents reported their personal consumption over the past year and answered questions about their participation in pro-climate actions and whether they were motivated by reducing their CBCF. We found that the high-impact actions of avoiding meat and flying had the most impact on CBCFs and had the highest correlation with climate motivation; however, the engagement levels were low. Conversely, the actions with the most participation had a lower impact on CBCFs and correlated less with climate motivation. Although respondents who reported a higher engagement with pro-climate actions and a higher climate motivation generally had lower CBCFs, their footprints were still not compatible with 1.5-degree limits. This study highlights the gap between climate motivation and the level of engagement in high-impact actions necessary for climate-sustainable lifestyles.

Stochastic optimal control problem of consumption and pension insurance with uncertain lifetime and its application to real-life data

We consider a continuous-time model of optimal consumption and pension insurance for a consumer with an uncertain lifetime. In the model, the consumer earns a stochastic wage income during her working life and optimally allocates her income between personal consumption, pension insurance, and securities with a deterministic dynamic return. Due to the weak development of the stock market in developing countries, employees' income comes mainly from wages and interest on savings from banks, that are discussed in this paper. The consumer's utility and bequest functions are constant absolute risk aversion (CARA). By characterizing the optimality condition of the consumer's problem using the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, we find the optimal consumption and pension insurance as a function of wealth in closed form. We consider an application of the model while estimating its key elements using real-life data on age-specific population size, labor income, and interest rates. We show that as the absolute risk aversion for consumption increases, consumption and wealth move in the opposite direction. We also present a novel finding that wealth and consumption can be negatively related across consumers with different levels of consumption risk aversion.

The relationship between health-care expenditure and disposable personal income: a panel econometric analysis on the EU countries

PurposeWhen the factors affecting health expenditures are examined in the literature, it is seen that one of the most important factors is income. In this context, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between out-of-pocket health expenditures and disposable personal income and revealing the income elasticity of health expenditures.Design/methodology/approachTherefore, short/long-term coefficients were obtained by analyzing Westerlund (2007) co-integration analysis and pooled mean group (PMG) regression methods for 22 European Union (EU) member states during the period 2003–2017. In addition, a comparison of the long-term coefficients for each country was obtained with augmented mean group (AMG) estimator.FindingsThe results of the AMG and PMG tests show that the long-term coefficients between disposable personal income and health expenditures are 0.83 and 0.97, respectively. These results imply that there is a significant relationship between the variables, and that health care should be categorized in the group of normal goods. However, the fact that the long-term coefficient is very close to 1, despite being classified in the category of necessity goods, requires more care to be taken in evaluating whether health services are luxury goods or necessity goods.Originality/valueThe use of second generation econometric tests on both cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity demonstrates the value of the study. On the other hand, obtaining similar results by investigating the relationship between variables using different appropriate econometric models reveals the importance of the methodology used in this study. It reveals important details in terms of the literature regarding the long-term and short-term results obtained in this study.

Socio-economic inequalities in the use of flu vaccination in Europe: a multilevel approach

BackgroundThe European-wide statistics show that the use of flu vaccination remains low and the differences between countries are significant, as are those between different population groups within each country. Considerable research has focused on explaining vaccination uptake in relation to socio-economic and demographic characteristics, health promotion and health behavior factors. Nevertheless, few studies have aimed to analyze between-country differences in the use of flu vaccination for the EU population. To address this gap, this study examines the socio-economic inequalities in the use of influenza vaccination for the population aged 15 years and over in all 27 EU Member States and two other non-EU countries (Iceland and Norway).MethodsUsing data from the third wave of European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) 2019, we employed a multilevel logistic model with a random intercept for country, which allows controlling simultaneously the variations in individuals’ characteristics and macro-contextual factors which could influence the use of flu vaccination. In addition, the analysis considers the population stratified into four age groups, namely adolescents, young adults, adults and elderly, to better capture heterogeneities in flu vaccination uptake.ResultsThe main findings confirm the existence of socio-economic inequalities between individuals in different age groups, but also of significant variation between European countries, particularly for older people, in the use of influenza vaccination. In this respect, income and education are strong proxy of socio-economic status associated with flu vaccination uptake. Moreover, these disparities within each population group are also explained by area of residence and occupational status. Particularly for the elderly, the differences between individuals in vaccine utilization are also explained by country-level factors, such as the type of healthcare system adopted in each country, public funding, personal health expenditure burden, or the availability of generalist practitioners.ConclusionsOverall, our findings reveal that vaccination against seasonal influenza remains a critical public health intervention and bring attention to the relevance of conceiving and implementing context-specific strategies to ensure equitable access to vaccines for all EU citizens.

Impact of Consumer Preferences on Kosovo’s Foreign Trade

In marketing, consumer behavior is a crucial factor in the placement of products in the market and is often the subject of study and research by large companies to identify the needs of citizens and their behavior as consumers in the buying decision process. Consumer buying behavior refers to the buying behavior of final consumers—individuals and households that buy goods and services for personal consumption (Kotler et al., 1999). A company that truly understands how consumers will respond to different product features, pricing, and advertising appeals has a significant advantage over its competitors. The factors that influence consumer behavior are the key elements that companies analyze and aim to break down in order to "attract" customers. This paper will examine the factors of consumer behavior and their impact on increasing/decreasing imports in trade with several countries with which Kosovo has international trade relations. The phenomenon of ethnocentrism will also be examined, a phenomenon that has emerged in every nation in recent years and is more pronounced in the Republic of Kosovo. Finally, an empirical analysis will be presented, highlighting the relationship between imports and import prices.

Over-commitment positively predicts hair cortisol concentrations only in nurses with high need for recovery.

In the contemporary workplace, enduring fatigue has become a standard for employees. This investigation assesses whether such working conditions exacerbate the depletion of employees' personal resources. The need for recovery serves as an indicator of the necessity to mitigate post-work fatigue. A high need for recovery signifies that employees must commence a new workday while already fatigued. This research recruited two cohorts of nurses, categorized by a high need for recovery and a low need for recovery, to examine the correlation between work effort and hair cortisol concentrations in each group. Hair cortisol concentrations serve as a biological marker of cumulative cortisol secretion over a specific time frame, reflecting overall personal resource expenditure during this interval. Findings revealed a notable positive correlation between intrinsic work effort (over-commitment) and hair cortisol levels exclusively among nurses with a high need for recovery. These outcomes imply that active effort amidst fatigue may lead to excessive strain. This insight enriches the classic 'effort-recovery' model by illustrating how an employee' s personal volition can influence the accumulation of fatigue.