ARE CHILDREN CONSUMING MORE OVER TIME? AN APPLICATION OF THE NATIONAL TRANSFER ACCOUNTS METHOD

This study estimates the age profile of consumption patterns in 1985, 1995, and 2005 in Taiwan, using the new methodology of National Transfer Accounts, and presents new results on children's consumption. A major finding is that per capita consumption by children has increased rapidly, both abs...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTáiwān jīngjì yùcè yǔ zhèngcè Vol. 42; no. 1; p. 119
Main Author Tung, An-Chi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Taipei Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica 01.10.2011
Subjects
Children & youth
Consumption
Economic development
Per capita
Studies
Welfare
Taiwan
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Summary:This study estimates the age profile of consumption patterns in 1985, 1995, and 2005 in Taiwan, using the new methodology of National Transfer Accounts, and presents new results on children's consumption. A major finding is that per capita consumption by children has increased rapidly, both absolutely and relatively by various standards, and has exceeded the increase of both prime-age adults and the elderly. The rising children consumption mainly comes from high education spending, and is increasingly supported by intra-familial transfer. These results carry important policy implications, given that the Taiwan is experiencing an extremely low fertility rate and rapid population aging on the one hand, and is pondering the implementation of more elderly welfare programs on the other. Thus the resource competition between age groups is expected to accelerate while long-term economic development may be unfavorably affected. These findings deserve further thoughts and invite deeper studies in the future. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:1729-8849
1729-9241