Abstract |
This thesis deals with the study of the effects of ageing on the consumption
behavior of households in Greece. Private consumption constitutes an important share
of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and macroeconomic analyses examine the
evolution of this size over time and in relation to the macroeconomic environment.
The focus here is on individual private consumption and its determinants, i.e., a
microeconomic analysis. The analysis was carried out using microeconomic data from
the ELSTAT Household Budget Survey (HBS) for the period 2008-2021. The age of
the household was assumed to 'match' the age of the reference person. Goods were
divided into four main categories according to the COICOP international
classification: durable, nondurable, semi-durable and services. As can be seen from
the descriptive statistics, Greek households spend most of their income on services
and non-durable goods. As the focus of the analysis is on the evolution of average
consumption expenditure and marginal propensity to consume with age, to distinguish
generational effects, the data were divided into cohorts based on the year of birth of
the household representative. Econometric estimates of the multiple regression model
used showed that the marginal propensity to consume differs significantly between the
four groups of goods. In fact, it turns out that the data show that the marginal
propensity to consume increases with age. The cohort-level analysis that followed
with the dependent variable being total average per capita expenditure and average
per capita expenditure on nondurable goods shows significant variation in
consumption levels across generations with the average level of expenditure being
lower for older generations. Unemployment at NUTS 1 geographical area level is
used to capture the macroeconomic environment and is negatively correlated with
individual consumption expenditure. Finally, the effects of other factors such as sex,
geographical region, educational level, and current main occupation on individual
consumption expenditure are examined.
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