Similarities in the Consumption Patterns of the Five Asian Tigers

Authors: Selvanathan, Eliyathahby Antony; Selvanathan, Saroja

Source: Asian Economic Journal, Volume 17, Number 3, September 2003 , pp. 297-323(27)

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Abstract:

The five countries of Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan are considered to be the major Asian economic `Tigers' behind Asia's growth in the late 1900s. In this paper, we analyze the consumption patterns of these five countries, using the most recent consumption data and employing the system-wide approach. We find that the consumption data from these five countries support a number of empirical regularities, including the `law of demand' and `Engel's law'. Based on the estimation results, we find that in all five countries, food, housing and medical care (except in Taiwan) are necessities, while clothing, durables (except in Singapore) and transport are luxuries. Demand for all the commodities is price inelastic. Furthermore, we find that the demand hypothesis, homogeneity, is acceptable for all five countries while Slutsky symmetry is acceptable only for Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. We also find that the preference-independence hypothesis is acceptable for all countries except Japan. Overall, consumption patterns of consumers appear to be similar across the five countries, while some differences exist between Japan and the other four countries.

Keywords: Asian tigers; consumer demand; cross-country comparison; demand elasticities; demand theory hypothesis

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8381.2003.00188.x

Affiliations: 1: Griffith University, Nathan

Publication date: 2003-09-01