Suchergebnisse

A transformation in the pattern of consumer expenditures has occurred in the nations that have reached high income levels during the past century. Smaller fractions of national income are spent on food, clothing, and shelter; larger fractions on recreation, medical care, education, and luxury goods. Cross-sectional studies of family budgets have been fairly reliable indicators of this trend. As early as 1857 Ernst Engel had pronounced his famous law about food expenditures on the basis of Edouard Ducpetiaux's Belgian budget studies. Similar assertions by others about clothing, fuel, and shelter followed; and in 1919 William Ogburn published his statistics of Washington, D.C., family budgets, indicating, in effect, that income elasticities of demand were highest for amusement and education. As the pattern slowly emerged, economists were not much disturbed. Why should consumers not be left alone in choosing between carrots and bedrooms? Interference with choices among luxury goods and services seemed even less warranted. Advertising posed no problem beyond encouragement of elementary veracity.In the past decade, however, this unconcern has faded. Several economists have joined sociologists, moralists, and general philosophers in questioning trends in consumer expenditures. Their concern is less with morals and social repercussions than with optimum consumption patterns in terms of economic value and resource allocation. Advertising in particular is no longer reproached merely for a bent towards mendacity. It is seen as more insidious, as manipulating consumers' choices by kindling subconscious anxieties. It puts consumers in a squirrel cage in which production and the want-satisfying process create wants that would otherwise not exist.

The paper analyzes the main trends of consumer markets in the post-crisis period. Particular attention is paid to the manifestation of global trends in Russia. The increasing value systems and lifestyle fragmentation leads to changes in even such fundamental elements of the human society as gender differentiation and models of family life. The growth of popularity of the economical consumption model is accompanied by a drop in loyalty to brands, as well as by increasing popularity of downshifting and minimalism. In these circumstances, those productsthat are able to take immediately into account several consumption trends and offer complete solutions have the best commercial prospects.

The food problem, the problem of adequate nutrition, is regarded as a major strategic issue that attracts intensive attention at all levels. Its significance stems from its important political and socio-economic dimensions. This thesis presents an analysis of the situation of food security and demand in Egypt. It depends mainly on both a descriptive and an econometric analysis of the most recent Egyptian Household Income, Expenditure, and Consumption Survey that has been conducted by the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) of the Government of Egypt in 1999/2000. This study estimates partial and complete food demand systems as a basis for choosing future Egyptian food policies. The results of the econometric analysis provide expenditure elasticities by region and household size for major food commodity groups in Egypt and expenditure and price elasticities for Egypt as a whole. Results indicate that expenditure and price elasticities for selected food groups are relatively high in Egypt. As expected, the estimation results show that expenditure elasticities for all food groups are positive and less than one, except for fruits, meats, and milk; indicating that most selected food groups are necessities. With the food groups such as fruits, meats, and milk having expenditure elasticities larger than unity, identifying them as luxuries, it is expected that these food groups will experience an increase in demand when consumers' income increases in tandem with the overall economic growth of the country.

Abstract ; Zs.-Fassung

China has constituted the most significant source of the incremental growth in global oil demand over the last decade, adding around 5 million b/d between 2000 and 2012. This is expected to continue well into the future: the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that China will account for more than 40 per cent of the increase in oil demand to 2035. A big part of that growth story has related to diesel, which has assumed a growing importance in the energy production and consumption of the world's fastest growing emerging market economies. Fuelled by trade and investment, China's growth has strongly supported diesel demand over the last decade. The dominant position of diesel in commercial freight traffic, be it by truck or rail, has made it the fastest-growing demand component. In China, the government mandate requiring all trucks to be fuelled by diesel by 2010 simply accelerated the already rising momentum of diesel demand growth. Further, diesel demand received an extra boost from power problems that led to greater use of diesel as a back-up fuel. In 2004, 2008, and 2010, power shortages during the winter months together with periods of government power rationing (to achieve environmental targets) contributed to buoyant diesel demand. The heavy industrial and mining sectors –such as coal, ship building, steel, and cement – that rely heavily on diesel, boomed throughout the 2000s. It is thus hardly a surprise that diesel was the backbone of Chinese oil demand growth, to the extent that Chinese oil demand growth was synonymous with diesel demand growth.