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Old‐Young Differences in Consumer Expenditure Patterns
Author(s) -
FAREED A. E.,
RIGGS G. D.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
journal of consumer affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.582
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1745-6606
pISSN - 0022-0078
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-6606.1982.tb00168.x
Subject(s) - consumer expenditure survey , consumer expenditure , demographic economics , economics , payment , regression analysis , consumer spending , demography , aggregate expenditure , public economics , statistics , finance , mathematics , sociology , recession , keynesian economics
It has been claimed that transfer payments to retired people reduce aggregate private saving. In their attempts to understand this issue, some writers have called for additional research to clarify the spending behavior of the older and younger households. The present paper uses regression analysis to examine the old‐young differences in expenditure patterns as revealed by the 1972–73 BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey. With data limitations noted, the findings suggest that, for consumer units headed by older (65+) and younger (<65) persons, the marginal and average propensities to spend relative to after‐tax income were virtually the same when estimated at the mean values of their respective characteristics, such as after‐tax income and family size. The statistical model utilized also suggests that, if given the older units' mean values for these characteristics, the younger group would have exhibited higher propensities to spend than the older.