The Study On The Consumer Expenditure Level And Expenditure Structure Of The United States

Consumption is very important both on meeting the basic needs of people and pulling effect on the national economy in economic development,especially in the post-crisis period,the nations in the world all put stress more on rasing the level of domestic demand and the improvement of the consumption.This dissertation studies the level and structure of consumer expenditure in the United States.It is mainly because that the United States is the number one of the world economy and has a great influence both on the development of the world economy and the international political situation.On top of this,the United States is a highly developed consumer economy country,even in developed countries,its consumption is at comparatively a high level.On the other hand,the United States leads the world of technological innovation and product innovation trend,therefor,technology and product innovation bring new goods and consumer services to the United States,the United States thus lead the global consumer market and the trend.Consumer spending has made a significant contribution to US economic growth.This dissertation studies the consumption expenditure level and consumption expenditure structure of US residents,and why the US consumer spending economy can be long-term stable as the driving force and source of its economic growth,to explore the core essence of this expenditure level and consumption structure.Economic globalization makes the global consumption structure are changing,observing the changes and trends in consumer spending in the United States,could help us to understantd the world general consumption and changes,it is very meaningful.The economic development of China and the United States is based on different political and socio-economic systems,but the essence of economic development and the problems in economic and social development are all fundamentally related to the supply and demand.The social structure of the United States is olive-type,economic development and social development are more concerned about the middle income class.China is a developing country,has a different social system and structure with the United States,but the needs of ordinary residents are interlinked,are to first meet the material life,security needs,spiritual needs.For the future changes in consumption and its influence on a country’s economic growth,we should study the US consumer spending on the basis of international comparison,can help China to prepare future changes,combined with China’s supply side reform,the appropriate use of financial,tax and other policy tools to promote China’s consumer economy better and more efficient for economic growth and improve people’s living standards.In this dissertation,based on the relevant research at home and abroad,we find that about the relationship between consumption and economic growth,both the Marxist and the traditional western economics put consumer demand in a very important position.Marxists believe that "consumption is the eternal enjoyment of human condition and living conditions," Keynes also believes that the reduction of aggregate demand for goods is the main reason for economic recession.The development economics divides economic development into multiple stages.Different statge has different consumption status.In the consumption level research theory,there are absolute income hypothesis,relative income hypothesis,intertemporal consumption theory,Friedman’s long-term income,life cycle hypothesis.When comparing the various types of expenditure,the linear expenditure system model and the extended linear expenditure system model are more applied.Through the United Nations data,we analyzed the United States in the world as as whole.Furthermore,compare comsumption level among the United States,Britain,Japan and China given Chenery’s theory.Combined with the actual US consumer expenditure and the data provided by the relevant international agencies,we can find some factors that may cause high consumption and low food expenditure in the United States,including faster growth in consumer income,higer labor rate and faster growth,innovation-driven development orientation and a relaxed financial environment.Based on the US Consumer Expense Survey,we analyze the consumer orientation of American consumers between 1990 and 2015.Then,we use the least squares method(OLS),vector autoregressive(VAR)and other methods to verify the long-term equilibrium relationship between current expenditure and current income,non-farm labor productivity,optimal interest rate,house ownership rate and consumer sentiment index.Then we analyze the structure of consumer spending primarily by applying data from the US Consumer Expense Survey(CE)and the US Consumer Per Capita Survey(PCE).We analyze the specific contents of the changes in consumer expenditure according to the two kinds of consumer surveys in the United States,and analyze the main characteristics and reasons of the changes in the US consumer expenditure from 1990 to 2015.Secondly,through the income grouping,geographical grouping,occupation grouping,city size and other grouping statistics to understand these factors led to differences in consumer spending.Thirdly,by extending the linear expenditure model,the basic consumption expenditure of 1995,2000,2005,2010 and 2015 and the basic consumption of all kinds of expenses were analyzed by age grouping data,and the difference between each age group and basic consumption expenditure structure are analyszed.In fact,it is precisely because of the understanding of consumer expenditure difference in the age,geographical,occupation,size and other aspects,government policy makers can develop targeted policies to help the balanced development of social and economic.On the basis of the previous research,the dissertation also investigates the relationship between US residents’ consumption and US economic growth.This dissertation makes a detailed study on the relationship between the contribution rate of residents ’consumption to GDP,the gray correlation analysis between residents’consumption and gross domestic product(GDP),and the cointegration analysis of the two.The results show that the consumption and GDP correlation is high with a long-term equilibrium relationship.Finally,based on the study of the level and structure of consumer expenditure of the United States,this dissertation gives suggestions on China’s economic growth and expanding domestic demand.China shall pay attention to the difference between different urban scale and different region.China shall raise the income level of middle-income people,increase the effective supply and make the consumer market alive in China.At the same time China shall pay attention to the level of entertainment and leisure consumption,grasp the elderly population consumption,improve the medical and education system,and increase consumer expenditure accordingly.In general improving the consumption environment both for internal and exetral aspect,increasing the residents’ income and confidence level,rasing the labor efficiency,improving the quality both for products and service could effectively push consumption and promote economy develop.