Contradictions in food consumption

This study asked consumers to identify the possible contradictions in their food consumption. The article takes the so‐called ‘antinomies of taste’– health vs. indulgence, convenience vs. care, extravagance vs. economy, novelty vs. tradition and together vs. alone – by Warde and Mäkelä as a starting point. The empirical part of the research analyses between which opposing poles the contradictions emerge when the consumers themselves are asked. Findings from a survey (745 respondents) indicate that consumers prefer to engage in food‐related activities that would be more aesthetic, healthful, tasty, convenient, caring and economic, but state significant barriers for not being able to fulfil these desires. Finally, the article draws theoretical conclusions about the connections between the prevailing food consumption‐related contradictions and contemporary consumer society.     

Over-Indebtedness in the Finnish Consumer Society

The incurring of debts continues to be a major problem in European economies despite the legislative and other preventive policies introduced over the past 10 years. This article discusses the problem of over-indebtedness in the Finnish consumer society. The article focuses on identifying the environmental and household factors promoting indebtedness and reviews the measurements of over-indebtedness. At the end of the article, a few policy instruments to tackle, or even prevent, over-indebtedness are provided. As debt problems are diverse and complex, the focus is to address the debt problem itself, identify its causes and search for tools for solving it. In addition, constructive talk about the indications of the problem and preventive mechanisms is also of essence.     

Forecasting the consumption of alcoholic beverages in Finland: A box-Jenkins approach

In this report the results of identifying, estimating and diagnostically checking short-term rational distributed lag (transfer function) models for forecasting the consumption of alcoholic beverages other than beer in Finland are reviewed and compared with some other Scandinavian studies. The output of models is the logarithm of the monthly consumption of alcoholic beverages while the only specified input is the logarithm of the price index of alcoholic beverages. Other explanatory variables are included in the ARIMA noise. The importance of the price variable is demonstrated by comparing ex post predictions obtained using different methods.     

Foreword

Journal of Consumer Policy -