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Regional Consumption Patterns in Australia: A System‐Wide Analysis *
Author(s) -
SELVANATHAN SAROJA
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
economic record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.365
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1475-4932
pISSN - 0013-0249
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4932.1991.tb02563.x
Subject(s) - commodity , clothing , consumption (sociology) , economics , homogeneity (statistics) , revealed preference , econometrics , microeconomics , statistics , geography , mathematics , social science , archaeology , sociology , market economy
This paper uses consumption data for eight commodity groups to present a system‐wide analysis of consumption patterns in the six States of Australia. We test the hypotheses of demand homogeneity, Slutsky symmetry and preference independence using Monte Carlo simulation techniques and find general acceptance of these hypotheses for the six States. The paper also presents demand elasticities for the eight commodity groups in each State. We find, overall, food, clothing and housing commodity groups are necessities while durables, medical care, transport and miscellaneous groups are luxuries. We also find evidence in support of similarity of consumption patterns across the six Australian States.