Searching for Basic Consumption Patterns Is the Engel Elasticity of Housing Unity?

Arbeitspapier

We estimate Engel elasticities of housing expenditures for each independent cross-section of the Consumer Expenditure Surveys in the period 1986-1998, and find that the elasticity remains close to unity for all years. Its mean over the period is 1.02. Engel and demographic effects for housing are estimated in an errors-in-variables two stage least square regression model using random samples of Norwegian households. We find that given demographic composition household demand for housing seems to increase proportionately with total consumption, in contrast to other categories such as food and transportation. The empirical regularity between housing expenditures and total consumption yields forecasting potential and may represent a basic pattern of consumption.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Discussion Papers ; No. 323

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis ; Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Housing Demand
• Subject: Budget share ; consumption pattern ; demand for housing ; Engel elasticity

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Larsen, Erling Røed
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Statistics Norway, Research Department
• (where): Oslo
• (when): 2002

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/192305
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET