Summary

Abstract

One of the great challenges to econometric household expenditure studies has been the estimation of the effects of family size and composition together with those of income or total expenditure on the consumption of specific budget items. As Cramer (1969) has shown, this problem involves intricate methodological issues. Nevertheless in this volume an effort has been made to derive such effects from budget data in the form of standard consumer scales. This effort may be considered to have been theoretically successful, although a number of practical problems have arisen, which may hamper the application of this method. However, that will become apparent only as more experience with this method is gained.