Dissertations / Theses: 'Consumption (Economics)'

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Weber, Guglielmo. "Consumption, liquidity constraints and aggregation." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.262094.

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Thomas, Alex M. "Consumption and Economic Growth in the Framework of Classical Economics." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/14130.

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This thesis is first and foremost an exploration of classical economics with consumption as its focus. It is the latter which distinguishes the present work from the already existing and growing literature on classical economics. The distinctive nature of the theory of value and distribution and the theory of activity levels and growth in classical economics and Marx is analysed and interpreted in chapters 2 to 9, which deal respectively with Cantillon, Quesnay, Turgot, Steuart, Smith, Ricardo, Sismondi and Malthus. The analytical separability between the theory of value and distribution and the theory of activity levels and growth emerges clearly in these chapters. The development of the role of consumption in economic growth, within the classical theoretical framework, particularly from Sismondi and Malthus, is then traced through Marx, Luxemburg and Kalecki – Marx and Luxemburg in particular working within that classical framework. Hence, the thesis we put forward is that the problem of demand insufficiency present in classical economics and Marx, but not satisfactorily formulated or theorized, finds an analytical resolution in Kalecki, via Luxemburg, independent of Keynes. Both Kalecki and Keynes articulate clearly the coordination mechanism between planned saving and planned investment which occurs via changes in aggregate activity levels. In classical economics, most notably in Smith and Ricardo, planned saving is one and the same as planned investment (our latter-day terms); but this assumption is untenable in any economy where saving and investment decisions are decentralised. Finally, in chapter 12, a simple demand-led growth model is presented. Consumption, especially autonomous consumption, is shown to play a decisive role. The last section of the chapter notes the affinities between classical economics and demand-led growth. This reflective section affirms the enduring relevance of the theoretical framework of the classical economists and Marx.

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Lopez-Mejia, Alejandro. "Liquidity constraints, near rationality and consumption." Thesis, Queen Mary, University of London, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.390359.

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Lansdell, Keith (Ronald Keith) Carleton University Dissertation Economics. "The Hendry approach to the consumption function; interpretation and application to Canada." Ottawa, 1992.

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Parker, Simon C. "An intergenerational theory of the consumption function." Thesis, Durham University, 1991. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6034/.

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This thesis presents a theory of the consumption function called the 'Inter- Generational Hypothesis' (IGH). The theory starts from the premise that individuals derive utility not only from their own consumption, but also from the welfare of their offspring. Individuals are supposed to maximise an intergenerationally altruistic utility function subject to a lifetime budget constraint and so derive their optimal consumption and bequest plans. From these plans, it is possible to construct an individual's consumption function. This contains earnings and inheritance terms, and is non-linear in earnings; this is consistently aggregated over all living individuals to yield the aggregate IGH consumption function. A feature of this function is the rich set of intergenerational information hypotheses it is able to encompass; there are also several implications with respect to earnings redistribution policy. The IGH function is estimated using 23 years of post-war UK data, and tested against rival consumption models, including Hall's (1978) REPIH. The principal finding is that the data do not appear to be consistent with either model in their pure form; however, they support a hybrid consumption function where a proportion of the population behave according to the altruistic IGH, and where the rest behave according to the 'selfish' REPIH. An additional finding, necessarily tentative given the imperfections of the distributional data, is a failure to detect significant non-linearity in the aggregate consumption function. This result casts doubt on the usefulness of policies designed to redistribute incomes in order to affect aggregate consumption.

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Borella, Margherita. "Time series analyses of consumption grouped data." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.271818.

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Grant, Charles Benedict. "Using regional differences to think about consumption." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.272302.

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O'Donnell, Owen. "Labour supply and consumption consequences of disability." Thesis, University of York, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.259808.

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9

Laibson, David I. "Hyperbolic discounting and consumption." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/11966.

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10

Öberg, Erik. "On Money and Consumption." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Nationalekonomiska institutionen, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-142164.

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Price Level Determination When Tax Payments Are Required in Money. We formalize the idea that the price level can be determined by a requirement that taxes be paid in money. We show that if households have to pay a money tax of a fixed real value and the money supply is constant, there is a unique stationary price level, and a continuum of non-stationary deflationary equilibria. The non-stationary equilibria can be excluded if we introduce an arbitrarily lax borrowing constraint. Thus, in the basic model, tax requirements can uniquely determine the price level. When money has liquidity value, tax requirements can exclude self-fulfilling hyperinflations. The New Keynesian Transmission Mechanism: A Heterogeneous-Agent Perspective. We argue that a two-agent version of the standard New Keynesian model - where a "worker'' receives only labor income and a "capitalist'' only profit income - offers insights about how income inequality affects the monetary transmission mechanism. Under rigid prices, monetary policy has no effect on output as workers choose not to change their hours worked in response to wage movements. In the corresponding representative-agent model, in contrast, hours do rise after a monetary policy loosening due to a wealth effect on labor supply: profits fall, thus reducing the representative worker's income. If wages are rigid too, however, the monetary transmission mechanism is active and resembles that in the corresponding representative-agent model. Consumption Dynamics under Time-varying Unemployment Risk. We argue that adjustment frictions for durable goods generate a powerful amplification channel from fluctuations in unemployment risk to aggregate consumption demand. First, we use survey data to document that durable expenditures react strongly to increased unemployment risk, while the effect on nondurable expenditures is indistinguishable from zero. Second, we propose and calibrate a buffer-stock savings model that includes adjustment frictions for durable goods. Although not targeted in the calibration, we find that the model reproduces the semi-elasticities of expenditures to unemployment risk estimated in the data. Using the model, we find that the inclusion of adjustment frictions raises the aggregate demand response of durable goods to fluctuations in perceived unemployment risk by approximately 200 percent. Moreover, upon experiencing an adverse risk shock, the responsiveness of aggregate demand for durable goods to the interest rate and transitory income shocks is dampened. Consumption Dynamics under Time-varying Unemployment Risk: Evidence from Time Series Data. We investigate the relationship between consumption expenditures and unemployment risk using aggregate time series data for the US and ten EU countries. As a proxy for perceived unemployment risk, we use data on households' subjective expectations over the future unemployment rate. First, we employ a single-equation framework to test whether subjective unemployment expectations predict aggregate consumption growth when controlling for predicted aggregate income growth. Second, we exploit the timing of the survey interviews in relation to the publication of official statistics to isolate exogenous innovations to unemployment expectations in a small-scale vector autoregression. For the US, both methods suggest that there is a large effect of unemployment risk on aggregate consumption. For the ten EU countries, the evidence is mixed.

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Kim, Seewon. "Risk sharing, consumption and saving : two essays." Connect to resource, 1999. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view.cgi?acc%5Fnum=osu1265039092.

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Pagès, Henri Frederic. "Three essays in optimal consumption." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/14436.

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Bishop, Tonja Bowen. "Financing retirement consumption and bequests." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54642.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2009.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 144-149).
This dissertation consists of three essays that evaluate possible vehicles for financing either retirement consumption or bequests. Chapter 1 compares the use of Roth and tax-deferred retirement accounts for retirement consumption with the use of taxable accounts. Previously, economists have often assumed that retirement savings should be done in a tax-deferred account. However, the advent of Roth-style tax-favored accounts and concerns about the tax implications of increasing retirement income through distributions from tax-deferred accounts warrant revisiting this question. I use data on married couples in the HRS and NBER's TAXSIM model to measure the probability of a household facing a higher tax rate at ages 62, 65, and 69 than the household faced at age 57. When the marginal tax rate is higher, the household could decrease their lifetime tax burden by choosing a Roth-style account over a tax-deferred account. I also measure the probability of facing a marginal tax rate that is sufficiently high that the household minimizes tax payments by using a taxable account rather than a tax-deferred account, when a Roth option is not available. I find that for distributions beginning at age 69, between 10 and 35% of households with taxable income at age 57 should prefer a Roth account to a tax-deferred account, but very few households prefer a taxable account. Chapter 2 models the tax-savings available through the use of tax-favored retirement accounts for bequests. Past research on tax-favored retirement accounts has focused on the incentives and effects of these accounts within the framework of the life-cycle model.
(cont.) However, tax-favored accounts also offer substantial tax savings for bequeathed assets. This chapter examines the incentives tax-favored accounts provide for bequests and simulates models of the available tax savings. The benchmark model calculates that the tax savings associated with a tax-deferred account (TDA) that is used to optimally bequeath assets exceeds the tax savings of a TDA used to produce a steady stream of retirement income by by 27.2%. Use of a Roth account for a bequest increases tax savings by an additional 32% over a bequeathed TDA. Chapter 3, joint work with Hui Shan, considers reverse mortgages as a method of financing retirement consumption. Housing wealth is the most important non-pension wealth component for many elderly homeowners in the United States. Reverse mortgages allow elderly homeowners to consume housing wealth without having to sell or move out of their homes. Though the U.S. reverse mortgage market has grown substantially, very few eligible homeowners use reverse mortgages to achieve consumption smoothing. This chapter examines all Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) loans originated between 1989 and 2007 and insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). It shows how characteristics of HECM loans and HECM borrowers have evolved over time, compares borrowers with non-borrowers, and analyzes loan outcomes using a hazard model.
(cont.) In addition, it conducts numerical simulations of HECM loans originated in 2007 to illustrate how the profitability of the FHA insurance program depends on factors such as termination rates, housing price appreciation, and the schedule of payments. This analysis serves as a starting point in understanding the implications of recent growth in the reverse mortgage market. Our results also suggest caution in predicting the profitability of the current HECM program.
by Tonja L. Bowen Bishop.
Ph.D.

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Parker, Jonathan A. "Individual consumption and aggregate implications." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/10836.

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Hino, Masashi. "Essays in Macroeconomics and Consumption." The Ohio State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1610043381935778.

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Simpson, Beth Michaela. "Environment, economics, and consumption, conflicting cultural models." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/NQ61175.pdf.

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Tolstrup, Karen Dodge. "Agents of Change and 'The Art of Right Living: How Home Economists Influenced Post World War II Consumerism." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2006. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/TolstrupKD2006.pdf.

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Dudas, Mary J. "Feminizing consumption : political agency and consumer society /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/10709.

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Chan, Hau-nung. "Consumption, taste and cultural capital : the case of Hong Kong /." [Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong], 1993. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B1369411X.

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Copelman, Martina. "Essays on consumption, credit, and stabilization." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/11957.

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Gourinchas, Pierre-Olivier. "Essays on exchange rates, and consumption." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/10830.

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Liao, Qun. "Household consumption in urban China during transition : model and evidence." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.264884.

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Guermat, Cherif. "Economic and time series analysis of electricity consumption in Algeria." Thesis, University of Exeter, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.303318.

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Akkoyunlu, Sule. "Turkish consumption and saving." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2000. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0ba100a8-0a19-40f5-a7c6-c18aa010c130.

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The principle aim of this thesis is to construct a consumption function for Turkey for policy analysis using the annual State Planning Organisation (SPO) time-series data. This study commences from 1962 and extends until the end of 1994, when a financial crisis occurred in Turkey. It attempts to analyse not only the decline in the private savings rate during the first half of the 1980s, but also the significant rise from 1986 onwards. The thesis starts with an introduction which explodes the main research objectives, considers the existing consumption theories and extentions, records the main data features to be explained, briefly overviews the modelling strategy and discusses the basic considerations of the research and gives the structure of thesis. A literature survey on the theory of consumption is given in Chapter 2. The LifeCycle/ Permanent-Income hypothesis is considered as central to the two mainstream approach. : the Euler approach and the solved-out approach. These approaches are further extended by considering uncertainty and precautionary saving, credit restrictions, saving and leisure. habit or costs of adjustments and the durability of goods, the role of assets and asset prices. financial liberalisation and demographic factors. Finally, comparisons between the two approaches arc made in the conclusion of that chapter. Theory can deliver concepts with permanent relationships in economics, but it should be supported by empirical findings, since theory alone is insufficient to determine the actual economic relationship. Hence, Chapter 3 focuses on theoretical and appl ied modelling issues to construct a theory-consistent, congruent and encompassing consumption function. Congruency implies that the empirical model matches the available evidence in al l measured attributes (i.e., it is consistent with the theory from which it was derived, has unexplained components that arc innovations against available information, has basic parameters that are constant, is data admissible, and where any conditioning variables are weakly exogenous for the parameters of interest). Encompassing denotes that the model of interest can account for the result of rival models of the same phenomena. I also define structure as the set of invariant features of the economic mechanism. A parameter can be structural only if it is invariant for an extension of the sample period (constant), is invariant with respect to changes elsewhere in the economy (regime shifts), and is invariant over extensions of the information set (adding more variables). Chapter 4 examines the small-sample properties of the statistical methods used by means of Monte Carlo simulations. The informativeness of the data is investigated in an unrestricted Vector Auto-regression (VAR) with small-samples of noisy data combined with a high real growth rate and nominal inflation. This is to see how the relative drift dominates in explaining the informativeness of the data. The Monte results are summarised by using response surfaces to relate the biases to sample size. The ratio of standard deviations to standard errors in each equation is also analysed. The strong impacts of the system error variances in these response surfaces indicate the importance of high variances in VA Rs. Furthermore, I found noise, and a function of the signal to noise ratio. and cross-equation correlation had a large impact, but less effect from the relative drift. Chapter 5 presents an overview of the Turkish Economy, particularly during the sample period. by pointing out the lessons to be drawn from the stabilisation experiments and their effect on the private sector saving decision in Turkey. The aim of Chapter 6 is to get nominal housing wealth and housing price data from the available data, such as the nominal private disposable income. nominal private investment in the housing sector and the consumer price index, since housing wealth is claimed to be a major determinant of private savings in Turkey. Chapter 7 aims to reveal the problems of Turkish data by analysing the history of the Turkish a1ional Accounts to construct a data-base for estimating a consumption function for Turkey. GDP by expenditure is constructed from five different sources. Turkish accounting residuals are allocated by applying the linear regression approach. The results show that GDP-by-output is more reliable than the GDP-by-expenditure measure for Turkey. Chapter 8 is devoted to the time series modelling and evidence. Previous findings on consumption for Turkey have been formulated using conventional econometric techniques with a static estimation methodology within the Permanent Income Hypothesis (PIH). I adopted the equilibrium correction model (ECM) solved-out consumption function approach and tried to incorporate the effects of age. precautionary behaviour in the case of uncertainty, credit constraints, habits or costs of adjustments. and the durability of goods for developing belier understanding of private sector savings behaviour in Turkey. The modelling is based on the dynamic econometric methodology that involves the estimation of a general unrestricted model (GUM). a co-integration and long-run analysis, and the simplification of the GUM to a parsimonious dynamic model that is deduced by applying a sequential testing procedure. The final model is congruent: It matches the available evidence in all measured attributes and forecasts well, has white noise errors and constant parameters, and encompasses the VAR model equation as well as other specifications in previous models. Moreover, the model has a structural interpretation. The results of the final model reveal strong positive effects of the real interest rate. inflation and inflation uncertainty, a strong negative effect of population aged 15-44, a positive effect after one lag period of the change in the average propensity to consume. which represents the effects of expectations, habits or adjustment costs, in addition to the significant effect of the inverse of per capita Private Disposable Income and the change in housing wealth to income ra1io on the private average propensity to consume in Turkey. These findings offer an explana1ion for the salient features of the Turkish consumption pattern observed from 1he lime series data. These results also provide some policy implications such that inOation control should be strengthened and improved for consumption stabilisation. Furthermore. interest rate policy also has an important role to play in the savings process in Turkey. The research on small-sample properties of 1hc statistical methods by means of Monte Carlo Simulations strengthens the results of the empirical model. These. confirm the poor determination of intercepts in I(I) VARs, and the corresponding advantages of an equilibrium correction model formulation. Furthermore. the insignificance the of irrelevant dynamics should encourage model builders to use a dynamic econometric methodology to develop parsimonious models, such as used for building a consumption model for Turkey in this thesis.

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Taniguchi, Kiyoshi. "Three essays on Japanese consumption patterns and agricultural policy." Connect to resource, 2001. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view.cgi?acc%5Fnum=osu1261312378.

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Tse, Ngo-sheung, and 謝傲霜. "Reading consumption: image, identity and consumption in late-capitalist society." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2002. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31953736.

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Tse, Ngo-sheung. "Reading consumption : image, identity and consumption in late-capitalist society /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 2002. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B25262142.

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Nogare, Chiara Dalle. "Essays in fiscal policy : political determinants and effects on private consumption." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.272920.

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Caballero, Ricardo J. "The stochastic behavior of consumption and savings." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99793.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 1988.
Includes bibliographical references.
Financial support provided by the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
by Ricard Jorge Caballero.
Ph.D.

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30

Page, Benjamin R. "Consumption and saving across the life cycle." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/11739.

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Hwang, Youngjin. "Essays on aggregate and individual consumption fluctuations." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34503.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2006.
Includes bibliographical references.
This thesis consists of three essays on aggregate and individual consumption fluctuations. Chapter 1 develops a quantitative model to explore aggregate and individual consumption dynamics when the income process exhibits regime-switching features, and compares its performance with the conventional linear model. For this purpose, I consider an economy populated by a large number of consumers whose incomes are subject to both aggregate and idiosyncratic shocks. The notable element of the model is that a latent regime-switching stochastic variable governs both the trend growth of the aggregate component and the counter-cyclical variances of the idiosyncratic components in individual earnings. I demonstrate that the model can provide a reasonable description of the cyclical behavior of actual consumption fluctuations, and can successfully replicate some key empirical properties of aggregate consumption growth, such as smaller volatility than income growth, greater volatility in recessions than in expansions, and a negatively skewed and leptokurtic distribution, while the typical linear model fails to do so.
(cont.) The model highlights that the interaction between aggregate and idiosyncratic shocks, shifts in the cross-sectional distribution of individual consumers' optimal consumption decisions, and learning about the underlying business-cycle regime play a critical role in explaining aggregate consumption dynamics. In addition, comparison between individual and aggregate consumption and aggregation issues are addressed. Finally, I show that the regime-switching features, combined with heteroskedastic income risk, can account for more than 50% of aggregate consumption fluctuations, but less than 4% of individual consumption fluctuations. It is widely believed that utility maximization implies that expected consumption growth should be higher in recessions which are associated with higher income uncertainty because consumers with precautionary saving motives save more to tilt up their consumption path. Evidence in the literature, however, does not seem to support this prediction. Chapter 2 tries to reconcile these seemingly contradictory observations. First, noting that recessions are times of both higher income uncertainty and lower income growth, I perform comparative experiments to see each effect on expected consumption growth.
(cont.) Higher income uncertainty indeed increases expected consumption growth, while lower income growth does the opposite. Next, in a calibrated switching regime income process example, where recessions are associated with lower income growth and higher uncertainty, I show the net effect may well decrease, rather than increase, expected consumption growth. I then compare my results to the usual argument in the literature, based on approximations to the Euler equation. Chapter 3 develops econometric methods to estimate consumers' risk aversion and time discount rate parameters in a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model set-up, using the simulated method of moments (SMM) technique. This approach, based on a numerical solution algorithm, offers several advantages over traditional methods, which directly estimate a (linearized) Euler equation. In particular, the model allows us to incorporate a possibly non-linear underlying income process and the selection of moment conditions into the estimation procedure. I also consider two extensions by (1) allowing for the parameters of the model to be state-dependent and (2) incorporating the agent's learning about the latent aggregate state.
by Youngjin Hwang.
Ph.D.

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Olivi, Alan(Alan Kevin). "Consumption heterogeneity in macroeconomics and public finance." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122112.

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Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Economics, 2019
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references.
This thesis consists of three chapters on households' consumption. In the first chapter we study the canonical consumption-savings income-fluctuations problem with incomplete markets and show theoretically how to recover households' preferences and beliefs from their consumption and savings decisions. The main innovation is to show how to use the transitory component of income as an instrument that shifts current consumption without changing beliefs about future stochastic changes in consumption. As such, the transitory component of income, affects consumption growth through an intertemporal smoothing motive with no immediate effect on precautionary savings. With the precautionary motive neutralized, comparing changes in consumption and savings in response to temporary shocks allows us to identify the curvature of marginal utility: when savings respond more than consumption to transitory changes in income, the relative prudence is higher.
Additionally, the transitory component makes it possible to identify an effective discount rate, which in turns makes it possible to control the degree of households' impatience. The curvature of marginal utility and the effective discount rate are sufficient to understand how preferences restrict consumption choices through the Euler equation. To then recover beliefs, we assume that beliefs are independent of exogenous changes in assets. This gives us an additional instrument to identify beliefs since the belief system then has to be consistent with the implied savings patterns as assets vary. These two instruments allows us to non parametrically recover preferences and beliefs in a very general framework: we can accommodate multiple consumption items (both durable and non-durable), multiple assets (liquid and illiquid, risky or not), habits, endogenous labor supply and so on. The second chapter builds on the first.
We investigate empirically, in data from the PSID and the SIPP, how households' expectations deviate from rationality. Our estimation shows that households are overconfident and overoptimistic. The main source of overconfidence is that households underestimate the frequency of shocks and their optimism is driven by an underappreciation of negative shocks. However, these biases are not homogeneous in the population: they are amplified for lower income households while higher income households' perceptions are closer to rational expectations. These results explain not only the quantitative magnitude of undersaving and overreaction to income shocks, but also why higher income households accumulate disproportionately more wealth. We then explore how these beliefs affect the design of unemployment insurance and the transmission of countercyclical income risk to aggregate demand.
In the third chapter, written with Xavier Jaravel, we investigate how to design optimal income redistribution policies when the price of goods is depends on the size of the corresponding markets and different households consume different goods. We introduce Increasing Returns to Scale (IRS) and heterogeneous spending patterns (non-homothetic preferences) into the canonical tax problem of Mirrlees. In this environment, any change in tax policy induces a change in labor supply, hence a change in market size, which translates endogenously into a change in productivity; this productivity response affects consumer prices and sets off another round of labor supply changes, market size changes, productivity changes, further labor supply changes, and so on. We show theoretically how to characterize these general equilibrium effects and we quantify their importance for the optimal tax schedule.
The calibrated model matches empirical evidence on IRS as well as the tax schedule, earnings distribution and spending patterns observed in the United States. We establish three main results: (1) the optimal average tax rate is substantially lower on average, falling from about 45% under Constant Return to Scale (CRS) to about 35% with IRS (because IRS increase the efficiency cost of taxation); (2) with IRS and homothetic utility, optimal marginal tax rates are much less progressive than under CRS, and they become regressive above the 65th percentile of the income distribution (because IRS increase the efficiency cost of taxation relatively more for the rich); (3) with IRS and non-homothetic utility, optimal marginal tax rates become more progressive (intuitively, the planner internalizes that the productivity increase that could result from a tax break to the rich has low social value if the rich spend their marginal dollar on products that the poor do not consume much of).
These findings indicate the importance of endogenous productivity and non-homotheticities for optimal taxation.
by Alan Olivi.
Ph. D.
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Economics

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Clark, David John. "ISM band systems : power consumption, usability and economics." Thesis, Durham University, 2011. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3267/.

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This thesis describes research into a specific area of Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) band applications that employ a central control panel to send broadcast information to the units in a system. One example of this is fire safety systems. The focus is on how battery life, reliability and usability of such a system may be improved through different mechanisms. The case study application is a system of radio controlled fire door holders. Following a review of the current literature and a look at the considerations of designing a wireless network, a comparison is made of two radio transceivers, each of which operates in a different frequency band. Testing is performed with both, and a choice made as to which to use in system implementations and further research. Results from the first system implementation quantify communications and circuitry improvements that increase battery life through improved receiver sensitivity and communications resilience. The second system implements a narrowband system, as well as improving unit displays for information output and system troubleshooting. Results from it show a further increase in receiver sensitivity and techniques developed to improve timing to reduce on-time, so reducing power consumption further. The third implementation employs frequency hopping techniques along with further advances in timing. Enhanced display manager techniques add to the usability of the system. Beyond this, more recent chip technology is used with algorithmic changes in small test units to assess how further improvements can be made in terms of battery life. A ten-fold improvement in battery life compared to the original implementation is shown to be possible when comparing the narrowband and wideband systems. Further improvements are described employing the latest chip technology.

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Xiao, Ge Kim J. O. "The Chinese consumers' changing value system, consumption values and modern consumption behavior." Auburn, Ala., 2005. http://repo.lib.auburn.edu/2005%20Summer/doctoral/XIAO_GE_36.pdf.

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Lebedinsky, Alexander. "A Study of the Stochastic Behavior of Durable Goods Consumption." TopSCHOLAR®, 1997. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/863.

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The author of this thesis examines the stochastic behavior of durables consumption in the rational expectations/permanent income hypothesis framework. The testing in this paper parallels the studies conducted by other researchers, who basing their work mainly on quarterly data rejected the frictionless rational expectations/permanent income hypothesis. The distinctive feature of this thesis is that the models are examined using monthly instead of quarterly data. The results of the estimation are compared to the results based on quarterly data. The results show that estimates obtained using monthly data seem to be more consistent with the frictionless rational expectations/permanent income hypothesis than the estimates from quarterly data. Then, by using two subsets of the monthly data representing the first and the last twelve years of a 37 year period, the models are reexamined to explore the possibility of change in the stochastic behavior of personal expenditures on durable goods over time. This results suggest a change in influence of liquidity constraints on the time series behavior of durable goods consumption over the last four decades.

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Issler, Paulo Floriano. "Essays on consumption cycles and corporate finance." Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3593864.

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This dissertation consists of two chapters that concern with the consumption cycle and corporate finance. The first chapter analyzes the role of durability in characterizing the consumption cycle. There is strong empirical evidence demonstrating that decreases in residential investments and durable expenditures are early indicators of economic downturns. Analogously, once the economy goes into recession, early increases in residential investments and durable expenditures signal economic recoveries. So far, little work has been done detailing the mechanisms explaining these important empirical stylized facts. In this article, I develop a general equilibrium asset pricing production model that includes durability and substitutability between perishable and durable service consumption. Results indicate that large shocks in the productivity of the capital accumulation process and a high elasticity of intertemporal substitution are both needed to create the correct timing of changes in durable expenditures and nondurable consumption characterized in the data. The study also uses this general equilibrium model as a framework to make predictions about the term structure of forward contracts settled on a national housing price index. Such work will create a foundation for further developing this important derivatives market.

The second chapter analyzes the link between debt maturity and the term spread. This chapter is co-authored with Pratish Anilkumar Patel. Evidence shows that a firm's debt maturity and term spread are intricately linked. Firms issue short term debt when the term spread is significantly positive and they increase maturity as the term spread decreases. The current literature explains this link with market frictions such as agency problems, asymmetric information, and liquidity risk. We explain the link between debt maturity and term spread using the trade-off theory of capital structure. When the term spread is small or even negative, transaction costs of debt rollover outweigh bankruptcy costs. Therefore, the firm optimally chooses to increase debt maturity. On the other hand, when the term spread is significantly positive, bankruptcy costs outweigh transaction costs of debt rollover. Therefore shorter debt maturity is optimal as it minimizes the chance of bankruptcy. In addition, we contribute to the current discussion in the literature concerning the speed of adjustments of capital structure, finding that firms are active in adjusting their capital structure. The model is consistent with a variety of stylized facts concerning debt maturity.

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Hyat, Taimur. "Essays on consumption and asset mobility in rural Pakistan : a microeconometric approach." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.391159.

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Giacomelli, Drausio S. 1966. "Essays on consumption and the real exchange rate." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/10118.

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Gross, Tal (Tal A. ). "Essays on health care consumption and household finance." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/49705.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2009.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 107-111).
This thesis explores how health insurance affects the decisions that individuals make. The first chapter studies the effect of insurance on health care consumption. Nearly 10 percent of teenagers become ineligible for their families' health insurance coverage on their nineteenth birthdays. Due to the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, however, they do not lose access to free emergency room care. I develop a straightforward theoretical framework to understand the implications of insurance transitions at age nineteen. I then develop an empirical framework that exploits the discontinuity in health insurance at age nineteen. Using a unique database of 15 million hospital discharge records, I find that Emergency Room (ER) usage rises discontinuously at age nineteen, particularly for minorities and residents of low-income zip codes. As predicted by the theoretical framework, the jump in ER utilization at age nineteen is disproportionately driven by ailments that physicians classify as inappropriate for ER care. I also find suggestive evidence that health care expenditures outside of the ER decline. A large share of the increase in ER utilization at age nineteen takes the form of uncompensated care, the cost of which is born by third parties. These findings constitute some of the first evidence on how the incentives faced by the uninsured affect medical expenditure. The second chapter, written jointly with Matthew Notowidigdo, studies the contribution of medical costs in the decision to declare bankruptcy. Consumer bankruptcies increased eighty-seven percent in the 1990s.
(cont.) By the end of the decade, more than one percent of American households were declaring bankruptcy in any given year. Anecdotal evidence and several observational studies suggest that out-of-pocket medical costs are pivotal in a large fraction of consumer bankruptcy declarations. In this paper, we use variation in Medicaid eligibility to assess the contribution of medical costs to household bankruptcy risk. Using cross-state variation in Medicaid expansions from 1992 through 2002, we find that a 10 percentage point increase in Medicaid eligibility reduces the personal bankruptcy rate by 8.7 percent, with no evidence that business bankruptcies are similarly affected. We interpret our findings with a model in which health insurance substitutes for other forms of financial protection. We conclude with a calibration exercise that suggests that out-of-pocket medical costs are pivotal in roughly 26 percent of personal bankruptcies among low-income households. The third chapter studies how transitions in insurance status may affect the consumption of health care. Transitions from one insurance program to another-or from insured status to uninsured status-are common. How these transitions affect individuals depends, in part, on whether consumers anticipate the loss of insurance. Potentially, if consumers are sufficiently forward-looking, they may "stock up" on health care before losing coverage.
(cont.) This paper studies the transition in insurance status as teenagers move from their family's coverage to uninsured status or other insurance plans. I find no evidence that teenagers stock up on medical care before coverage ends, but rather a general decrease in health care consumption in the last month of coverage.
by Tal Gross.
Ph.D.

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Beaulieu, J. Joseph. "On durable and nondurable consumption with transactions costs." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/12877.

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Karras, Georgios. "International evidence on employment output and consumption effects of government spending." Connect to resource, 1990. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view.cgi?acc%5Fnum=osu1265131230.

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Kondeh, Sahr M'Gbenbo. "The determinants of household consumption expenditure patterns in Sierra Leone : an empirical investigation." Thesis, Manchester Metropolitan University, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.336839.

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Chan, Ka-wah. "An analytical study of Hong Kong's private consumption expenditure figures." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 1989. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B31975677.

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Sarpong, Eric Mensah. "Essays in labor economics alcohol consumption and socioeconomic outcomes /." unrestricted, 2006. http://etd.gsu.edu/theses/available/etd-12112006-213322/.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2006.
Includes vita. Title from title screen. Shiferaw Gurmu, committee chair; Paula E. Stephan, Erdal Tekin, Gregory B. Lewis, committee members. Electronic text (259 p.). Description based on contents viewed May 9, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 250-258).

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Sarpong, Eric Mensah. "Essays in Labor Economics: Alcohol Consumption and Socioeconomic Outcomes." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2007. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/econ_diss/25.

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Recent studies indicate that alcohol consumption may affect economic outcomes through its effects on health capital and social capital. If, in fact, differences in economic outcomes are causally linked to differences in alcohol consumption, then lack of adequate insight into such connectivity may adversely affect the labor market and retirement outcomes of some groups of individuals in society. In two essays, this dissertation examines the impact of alcohol consumption on wealth at retirement using data from the RAND Health and Retirement Study (HRS) from 1992 through 2002; and the effects of alcohol consumption on employment duration and earnings using the Geocode version of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY1979) micro dataset from 1984 through 1996. This dissertation relies on Grossman's 1972 health capital model. Empirically, the research relies on panel data methods and duration analysis to determine whether differences in economic outcomes can be explained by differences in alcohol consumption. The results indicate that drinking is positively related to improved socioeconomic outcomes as compared to total abstention, when endogeneity has not been taken into account under both duration analysis and panel data methods. When endogeneity is taken into account, alcohol consumption tends to shorten the duration of employment via survival analysis. Also, estimation via instrumental variables approach indicates that the relationship between alcohol consumption and socioeconomic outcomes (retirement wealth and earnings) is rather an inverted U-shaped for some panel data specifications. Moreover, the effects of alcohol consumption on retirement wealth and earnings tend to diminish with instrumental variables approach. These findings did not change even with abstainers partitioned into lifetime abstainers and infrequent or light drinkers (less than one drinking day per week).

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Dahan, Abdulkarim Ali 1962. "Energy consumption in Yemen: Economics and policy (1970-1990)." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/290620.

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This dissertation examines the consumption of commercial energy, electricity and petroleum products in Yemen for the period 1970-1990. The main objectives are: (1) analyzing the energy consumption in Yemen; (2) investigating the determinants of demand for electricity and petroleum products (3) projecting the values of petroleum consumption for the years 1991-2000; and (4) recommending measures to curb the rate of increase in the demand for energy and to reduce the dependence upon imported oil. This study found that economic growth in Yemen has had a major impact upon the demand for electricity and petroleum products, and that energy intensity had increased over time, indicating that economic growth of Yemen has been very energy intensive. The models that have been chosen in this study are based on the theory of demand. According to this theory, the demand for a good is a function of own price, price of substitutes, and income. The estimates given by the model for aggregate electricity over the period 1975-1990 improved when the number of customers was included in the demand equation. Income and the number of customers are the major determinants of electricity demand in Yemen; the estimated coefficient for price of electricity over the period was not statistically significant at the 5% level. In the case of the demand for electricity by sectors, the results are more useful than for aggregate electricity demand. Electricity consumption for the residential, commercial and industrial sectors was well modeled as a function of only price and income. Demand for electricity in the agricultural sector, however, was described best by a stock adjustment model. The estimated models for individual petroleum products showed that price for fuels and income are major determinants in explaining the variation in demand for these products. Overall, this study found that the future energy outlook in Yemen calls for increasing electricity and petroleum consumption. Moreover, current fuel efficiencies and the estimated fuel demand equations indicate increasing fuel prices, given growth rates of population and per capita GDP. Thus, issues to be considered by energy policy include welfare and economic growth implications of increasing fuel prices, energy conservation, and expanded domestic petroleum production.

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Souleles, Nicholas S. "The relationship of household consumption and saving to income." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/11092.

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Wang, Xiaojun. "Durable goods consumption : from micro foundation to macro dynamics /." The Ohio State University, 2001. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1486394475977619.

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Wright, Thomas Frank. "Aspects of local consumption and the standard of life : Shrewsbury and Chesterfield, 1913 - 1939." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.335665.

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Emontspool, Julie. "Consumption discourses as positioning strategies for international migrants." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/209778.

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In today’s globalised world, everyday life becomes increasingly “liquid” - changing and fragile - as individuals continuously adapt their lifestyle and behaviour to global influences (Bauman 2000). To provide a general framework for understanding this world, Appadurai (1996) introduces five “dimensions” of global flows in his seminal work Modernity At Large: ethnoscapes, financescapes, mediascapes, ideoscapes, and technoscapes. One of them, the ethnoscapes, refers to the increased mobility of individuals and peoples, impacting their cultural affiliations and social networks.

The focus of this thesis lies on international, cross-border migrants, the primary representatives of these uprooted individuals. Studying migrants’ consumption behaviour provides a better understanding of the issues faced by all members of liquid life in terms of consumption behaviour, whether they are migrants or not, by referring to its most extreme cases.

The present dissertation addresses migrant consumer research through an original angle. It suggests that international migrants position themselves in the global mediascapes of cosmopolitanism and transmigrant communities by activating different consumption discourses. This approach offers a solution to previous ambiguous categorisations of international migrants by relying on self-categorisation across national and cultural boundaries instead of outside-defined sociodemographic or geopolitical criteria. In addition to providing a typology based on the migrants’ strategies of positioning that explains global consumer acculturation, the results allow for a disambiguation of the notions of immigrants, globals and cosmopolitans.

The contribution of the dissertation lies in its contrast to existing research, and is therefore more adapted to the liquidity of our modern world. Indeed, the field of consumer research as much as political discourse or companies tend to categorise international migrants according to socioeconomic or geopolitical criteria, such as education, duration of stay or ethnic origin. While consumer research often views low-skilled immigrants in light of specific ethnic groups (Peñaloza 1994, Oswald 1999, Üçok 2007), cross-cultural samples represent the preferred approach to highly-skilled expatriates (Thompson and Tambyah 1999). Consumer research addresses and considers these categories of migrants differently, a questionable postulation in light of global flows which render movement across nations more complex and lead to mixed and multiple cultural affiliations.

The main research question to answer in the present thesis is: How do international migrants use consumption behaviour to make sense of their experience? Its broad character allows for new insights and approaches to emerge, both on the side of existing literature and on the empirical side.

The dissertation initiates the answer by a first review of the literature. The review highlights gaps and contradictions which can be found in the literature centred on international migrants and their consumption behaviour. The explanation of the context of this research encompasses the definition of consumer culture as well as of globalisation. Indeed, consumption as a discourse plays a role especially in terms of the subscription to a particular group; individuals use consumption to communicate, to express their affiliation with a family, or a place, to situate their identity in their universe (Douglas and Isherwood 1979). These issues change in the global context, and therefore need review. Migration research constitutes the second chapter of the literature review. It presents on the one hand the people endeavouring migration, and on the other, illustrates the various models explaining migration as a process.

Based on this review, the research question transforms, splitting it into three elements, each focusing on one element: cultural affiliations, migrant networks and consumer acculturation. The consequent empirical part aims at answering these three questions through three separate, though complementary, research phases, which rely on in-depth interviews, focus groups and observations. Each phase predominantly addressed one research question, though all three elements remain present in all phases.

Different types of consumption discourses emerge; in the case of a focus on products of home and/or host culture, three locality discourses develop. Seven globality discourses integrate global and other foreign products in the equation. International migrants seem to use these locality and globality discourses to position themselves in today’s liquid world. They can consequently be compared to the twelve worlds that are presented by Rosenau (2004) as positioning strategies resulting from global “fragmegration”, that is, the difficulty of integrating fragmented and contradictory elements of global societies.

The contribution of this dissertation lies in the integration of more diversity in the concepts of cultural affiliations, migrant networks and consumer acculturation. Consequently, the locality and globality discourses provide indications as to the acculturation strategies possible for its members.

Doing so, this thesis integrates debates of the local and the global, immigrants versus expatriates, integration versus acculturation, a comparison of interest to both researchers and marketers. On a theoretical level, the thesis provides thus a more generalised view on international migrants, incorporating previous categories. It provides practical solutions, both on a political and on a managerial level. The provided typology enables policy-makers and managers to better understand the new tendencies and problematics inherent to international migration and to address migrants in a way taking into account their actual affiliations and networks.

Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Consumption (Economics)'

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