Changing Determinants of Consumption in Hungary, 1982–1998

The paper investigates the relationship between lifestyle and social position by translating Bourdieu's theory into empirically testable models. Two dependent variables are defined; cultural consumption is measured by number of books, and visiting theater, museums, and concerts; material consumption is measured by possessing various consumer durables in the household. The analysis reports on how the effects of status-related (education, prestige, income), class- related (service and entrepreneurial class) and demographic (sex, age, region) measures on cultural and material consumption have changed over one and a half decades in Hungary. Data are taken from four nationwide surveys: 1982, 1986, 1992 and 1998. For testing changes over time identical measures have been constructed, cases have been weighted equally and the analysis is performed on a pooled data-set. Changes in determinants of cultural and material consumption are estimated by OLS regression models including the impact of time, the aforementioned explanatory variables, as well as interaction terms of the predictor variables with time. Results confirm that greater economic assets increase cultural and material consumption. Education and service class membership are stronger predictors of cultural consumption, while income and self-employment better explain material consumption. Contrary to expectation, these effects changed little in post-communist Hungary.