How sensitive are consumer expenditures to retail energy prices?

There is growing evidence that the primary effect of energy price shocks on the U.S. economy involves a reduction in consumer spending. We quantify the direct effect on real consumption of unanticipated changes in discretionary income, shifts in precautionary savings, and changes in the operating cost of energy-using durables. The possibility of asymmetries in the response of real consumption to energy price shocks is also considered. We demonstrate that linear models are consistent with the symmetric behavior of real consumption in 1979 (when energy prices increased sharply) and in 1986 (when they fell sharply). It is shown that historically energy price shocks have been an important factor in explaining U.S. real consumption growth, but by no means the dominant factor.     

Distributional effects of environmental taxes on transportation: evidence from Engel curves in the United States

Indirect taxes on transportation activities that pollute can correct externalities and close the gaps between private and social costs. However, policy makers often find such Pigou taxes difficult to implement because of political resistance due to possibly adverse affects on equity. For this reason it is important to assess the distributional aspects of environmental levies. This article estimates properties of the demand for transportation in parametric and non-parametric analyses of Consumer Expenditure Surveys for the United States and finds patterns in the resulting set of Engel curves. Private transportation using air flights and new cars has Engel elasticity above unity while public transportation via mass transit has Engel elasticity below unity. The findings can be interpreted in an important way since they show that a differentiated scheme of environmental taxes on transportation may function progressively. A Pigou scheme with larger taxes on modes of transportation that pollute more appears to coincide with larger levies on luxury modes preferred by richer households.     

Paying before consuming: Examining the robustness of consumers’ preference for prepayment

Prior research on consumers’ preference for timing of payment suggests that consumers prefer to prepay for certain kinds of purchases (e.g., vacations) and postpay for others (e.g., washer dryers). This research extends this finding by first comparing preference for timing of payment for products that vary by type (hedonic vs. utilitarian) and durability (nondurable vs. durable) to reveal that it is only hedonic-nondurable products that elicit a preference for prepayment (study 1). The two studies that follow examine the robustness of the prepayment preference by (1) varying the favorability of the transaction (study 2), and, (2) by eliminating the choice of payment timing from the transaction (study 3). Results reveal that the preference for prepayment for hedonic-nondurable goods is robust when transaction characteristics are favorable but shifts when transaction characteristics are unfavorable. Furthermore, when the choice of payment timing is not offered, consumers become indifferent towards when they prefer to pay for hedonic-nondurable products. The implications of these findings for marketers and retailers are discussed.     

城乡居民收入差距对居民消费影响的实证分析

回归分析证明了改革开放以来城乡居民收入差距过大导致整个消费水平越来越低,增加城市居民的收入不能提高我国居民的整体消费水平;城镇居民收入较高,相对于农村居民来说边际消费倾向要低于农村居民的边际消费倾向,如果能增加农村居民的收入,则会提高全国的消费总量及转变农村的消费结构。     

外商直接投资行业分布对中国能源消费影响的实证分析

运用指数因素分析法将中国各行业能源消费指数分解为外商直接投资（FDI）数量效应、FDI行业分布效应和投资能源强度效应，拟揭示FDI行业分布对中国能源消费的影响。研究认为，FDI行业分布对中国能源消费影响较大并呈现加强态势。因此，通过制定合理的产业政策引导FDI的行业分布，可以有效地降低中国能源消费。     

Consumption,Resistance and Everyday Life: Ruptures and Continuities

This paper makes the case for regarding political consumption and more generally individual collective action as an instance of “everyday resistance.” In doing so it seeks to make connection with the political case against representative politics, one that stretches back to the origins of “official” politics at the start of the 19th century. Three moments in the history of the idea of everyday resistance are presented: Max Stirner’s egoistic individualism, Leo Tolstoy’s critique of violence, and Agnes Heller’s evocation of the everyday as a site of civic courage. The examples show the longevity and persistence in political thought of the idea of the individual as the locus of social power, one that puts it at odds with the normative assumptions of theories of representation. They also show the dangers of assuming that individual collective action can unproblematically be considered a form of participation in democratic processes as opposed to a resistance against incorporation into mainstream or “official” politics. Rights which are often at the core of efforts of activists become remodelled as a weapon of contingent “everyday” struggles as opposed to a universal or transcendentally posited phenomenon.

高速铁路对居民消费的空间溢出效应研究

高速铁路开通对居民消费发展具有重要影响。本文基于2003-2017年的省级面板数据,利用空间杜宾模型检验了高速铁路对居民消费的空间溢出效应。结果表明:(1)我国居民消费存在明显的空间集聚特征;(2)周边地区的高铁运营对本地区的居民消费水平有促进作用,但二者并非简单的线性关系,高速铁路对我国居民消费水平的影响呈倒U型;(3)周边地区高铁通过影响当地经济发展水平和旅客周转量来促进当地居民消费水平提升。为此,我国需要充分利用居民消费的空间依赖性来改善各地区居民的消费,完善和优化现有的高铁网络,以高铁发展带动消费水平提升,为经济可持续发展提供适宜的消费环境。     

关于农村消费的现状及政策建议

文章对我国农村消费变化现状和趋势进行了深层次研究和分析，做出了新的概括和判断。从诸多方面研究了农村的消费能力、消费条件、消费环境、消费信心和消费习俗，深入分析了农村居民的消费水平、消费结构和消费行为，指出了制约农村扩大消费的七个因素。在此基础上，提出了扩大农村消费的总体思路和政策建议。     

房价结构调整与经济结构转型

目前,我国住宅房地产价格明显偏离正常值。对房价结构的分析表明,房价结构中33.86%的资金流向了政府。经过房价结构这一隐秘机制的运行,本来属于居民消费领域的购房资金被转变为政府投资资本,导致经济结构中投资与消费之间的比例失衡。这与我国加快经济结构调整,增加消费在促进经济增长中的比重相悖。为应对上述情况,加快优化房价结构是促进经济结构转型的有力举措。     

Health insurance and consumption: Evidence from China’s New Cooperative Medical Scheme

We exploit a quasi-natural experiment arising from the introduction of a health insurance program in rural China to examine how the insurance coverage affects household consumption. Results show that, on average, the health insurance coverage increases nonmedical-related consumption by more than 5%. This insurance effect is observed even in households with no out-of-pocket medical spending. In addition, the insurance effect is stronger in households with worse self-reported health status. These results are consistent with the precautionary savings argument. The insurance effect also varies by household experience with the program. In particular, the effect is significant only in villages where some households have actually obtained reimbursement from the insurance program. The program within these villages stimulates less consumption among new participants than among households that have participated in the program for more than a year.