关键词: 家庭消费, 年龄别消费模式, 消费函数, 家庭调查

Abstract: Based on household survey data from China Family Panel Study (CFPS) in 2010, this paper econometrically quantifies and estimates household consumption pattern by age and gender in both urban and rural China. Unlike previous studies in which only age factors are considered to be independent variables, we expand classical demand and consumption functions by including age variables in our econometric model to obtain stronger explanatory power and higher accuracy. Our results show that people aged 30-34 and 45-49 have the highest household consumption in their lifecycle; people aged 80 and above are the group with the largest urban-rural consumption disparity; rural residents reduce their expenditure on health care considerably at their very advanced age; rural middle-age women expend less than men on health care. Thus it is necessary to strengthen policy support to a certain groups of residents. Policy makers should pay more attention to population dynamics when they make decisions on adjusting industrial structure and planning public resources allocation.

Keywords: Household Consumption, Age-specific Consumption Pattern, Consumption Function, Household Survey