An Analysis of Discretionary Consumption Expenditure

선택성 소비지출의 변동을 통한 소비"패턴"고찰

  • 강이주 (인천대학 가정관리학과)
  • Published : 1988.12.01

Abstract

This paper attempts to investigate and analyze the change of the proportion of discretionary consumption expenditure (DCE) of main consumer goods among total household expenditure from 1964 to 1986 in Korea by reorganizing various data, particularly "Annual Report of Citizen's Household Experditure in Sooul".The result of the author's analysis can be summarized as follows. 1. The analysis shows that while the proportion of DCE in food has been increased during this period as the Korean economy developed, the value of income elasticity for beverages, liguor, out-door eating and processed food products which consist of major part of food, has been successively decreased. And also, though the absolute value of income elasticity for grain products has been increased, its proportion among total expenditure has been successively decreased. From these trends, we can conclude that general consumption pattern has a tendency to change from dependence on main grain products to the more utilization of out-door eating or processed food products. 2. The ratio of DEC of furnitures to housing expenditure has played a role of indicator of business cycle, reflecting the consumers' psychological expectation fro general economic trend. 3. In case of the proportion of DCE of clothes, there has been no great change. 4. As for as DCE of sundry expenditure is concerned, there has been no-great change in The proportion itself/ However. as the ratio of sundry expenditure to total household expenditure has been greatly increased, expenditure for leisure disproportionately increased. 5. The proportion of total DCE in total consumption expenditure, as in the case of housing, has been increased, which coincided exactly with business cyele appeared during this period. In fact, when Korea economy experienced a severe recession in 193 and 1980, that proportion deeply went down respectively, and again went up after those years. Accordingly, we can generalize that the size of DCE deperds on the formation of consumer's psychological expectation toward economy, which confirms George Katona's early proposition.

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