Understanding the Theory of Consumption in the Context of a Developing Economy
Abstract
This paper synthesizes the theory of consumption using some Nigerian contexts. The argument on what determines consumption is yet an unfinished task. We tested the general consumption function using Nigerian data covering 1981-2012. Based on the diagnostics, we employed a vector autoregression-in-first difference approach. The result shows that previous incomes (up to two lags) may not be significant in influencing consumption in Nigeria but previous consumption levels (up to two lags) attained may do. In addition, consumers in Nigeria may reduce their consumption in the current year based on their knowledge of previous year consumption but may raise the current consumption level due to their experience of last two years consumption. This corroborates suggestions that macro-econometricians must analyze consumption beyond the general consumption function. The pattern of historical data also suggests that consumption may be difficult to predict in Nigeria. Therefore, government of Nigeria may succeed in influencing its aggregate demand which consumption is the major component if its income and tax policies are permanent, rather than being temporary.
Downloads
References
Copyright (c) 2017 David Mautin Oke, Koye Gerry Bokana
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Author (s) should affirm that the material has not been published previously. It has not been submitted and it is not under consideration by any other journal. At the same time author (s) need to execute a publication permission agreement to assume the responsibility of the submitted content and any omissions and errors therein. After submission of a revised paper in the light of suggestions of the reviewers, editorial team edits and formats manuscripts to bring uniformity and standardization in published material.
This work will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) and under condition of the license, users are free to read, copy, remix, transform, redistribute, download, print, search or link to the full texts of articles and even build upon their work as long as they credit the author for the original work. Moreover, as per journal policy author (s) hold and retain copyrights without any restrictions.