Purchasing power

About: Purchasing power is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2714 publications have been published within this topic receiving 36866 citations. The topic is also known as: adjusted for inflation.

Children in family purchase decision making in india and the west: a review

Abstract: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Children constitute an important target market segment and merit attention from a marketing perspective. The role that children play in making decisions concerning the entire family unit has prompted researchers to direct attention to the study of influence of children. The amount of influence exerted by children varies by product category and stage of the decision making process. For some products, they are active initiators, information seekers, and buyers; whereas for other product categories, they influence purchases made by the parents. The purchasing act is governed by how they have been socialized to act as consumers. Family, peers, and media are key socializing agents for children wherein family-specific characteristics such as parental style, family's Sex Role Orientation (SRO), and patterns of communication play key roles. More so, changes taking place in the socio-cultural environment in India (such as emergence of dual-career, single parent families) entail that dimensions of children's influence in family purchase decision making be investigated in a specific context. Indian society vastly differs from the West in terms of family composition and structure, values, norms, and behavior, which affect the role that children play in purchase decision making in families. Hence, the aim of this paper is not only to explore the dimensions already investigated by previous researchers in India and Western countries but also to identify directions for future research. ********** Research on family decision making has been largely confined to spouses, who have been considered as the relevant decision making unit in a family. However, the role of third party influences, such as children, on decision making strategies and negotiations is essential to taking a broader view of the relevant unit of analysis. Traditionally, women were seen to be the purchasing agents for the family. Nonetheless, increasing participation of women in the workforce has prompted a shift in this role as children are increasingly the "buyers" for the entire family. Even in families where women do not work, children are observed to share this role with their mothers. Children enjoy greater discretion not only in making routine consumption decisions for the family but also in pestering their parents to buy other products desired by them. Contemporary researchers express that children constitute a major consumer market, with direct purchasing power for snacks and sweets, and indirect purchase influence while shopping for big-ticket items (Halan, 2002; Singh, 1998). Indian children have recently attracted considerable attention from marketers because the market for children's products offers tremendous potential (pegged at Rs. 5000 crore/$1110mn) and is rapidly growing. According to available industry data, the chocolate and confectionary market is estimated at Rs. 1300 crore/$290mn, the apparel market at Rs. 480 crore/$110mn and kids footwear at Rs. 1000 crore/$220mn (Bhushan, 2002). In addition to this, 54% of India is estimated to be under the age of 25 (Bansal, 2004). Children constitute three different markets: the primary, the influencer, and the future market (Figure 1). Certain products are simply children's products for which they are the primary users/buyers. They sometimes either purchase a product themselves or select the product before it is purchased by the parents. For other products, such as ones which are used by the entire family unit, they may influence purchases made by the parents. There are some products where children wield direct influence or pester power by overtly specifying their preferences and voicing them aloud. For other products, parents' buying patterns are affected by prior knowledge of the tastes and preferences of their children. This 'passive dictation' of choice is prevalent for a wide variety of daily consumed product items as well as products for household consumption. …

Urban Policy Making and Subjective Service Evaluations: Are They Compatible?

Abstract: 1978). 15. The approach is spelled out in some detail in Bahl, Schroeder and Zorn, "Local Government Revenue and Expenditure Forecasting: Dallas, Texas." 16. Note that there is no attempt to forecast future policy changes; this hesitancy to predict future political actions is, in general, the approach used in each of the major cities currently forecasting expenditures. See Bahl and Schroeder, "Forecasting Local Government Budgets." 17. For an interesting discussion of these issues, in general, see Garry D. Brewer, "Where the Twain Meet: Reconciling Science and Politics in Analysis," Policy Sciences, Vol. 13 (June 1981), pp. 269-279. 18. The City of Portland, Oregon further restricts this assumption by assuming that "wage increases will not offset the previous year's purchasing power loss when inflation is above 8.0 percent." City of Portland, Bureau of Management and Budget, "Preliminary Five Year Projection," Memorandum dated January 9, 1981, p. 8. 19. Although its forecasts were public, the approach used in New York City in the late 1970s was to include no increases in money wages in the projections other than those already included in multi-year union contracts. While the technique divulged no information of strategic value to the unions, it also greatly limited the reasonableness of the forecast results. 20. Indeed, William Ascher, Forecasting, An Appraisal for PolicyMakers and Planners (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978), p. 199, argues that the assumptions underlying a forecast are more important than choice of forecast methodology in determining forecast accuracy. 21. San Antonio Department of Budget and Research, City of San Antonio, Long-Range Financial Forecast, Fiscal Years 19811986 (San Antonio, Texas: December, 1980), pp. 10-14. San Antonio's document also issues repeated warnings to the reader that the projected budgetary shortfalls are not prophecies of such outcomes but only indicators that policies must be undertaken to ensure that they will not arise. 22. City of Shreveport, MultiYear Forecast, 1981-1985 (Shreveport, Louisiana: 1981), pp. 6-10.

Financial crisis and global imbalances: its labour market origins and the aftermath

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to articulate how the 2007--09 economic crisis is rooted in the uneven income distribution and inequality caused by the current finance-led model of growth. The process of financialisation that took place in the 1980s in the USA and then in the European Union was coupled with labour flexibility, wage moderation and soaring profits. The flexibility agenda of the labour market and the end of wage increases, along with the contraction of indirect wages (i.e. public social expenditure), diminished workers' purchasing power. This was partly compensated with increased borrowing opportunities and the boom of credit consumption, all of which helped workers to maintain unstable consumption capacity. However, in the long term, unstable consumption patterns derived from precarious job creation, job instability and poor wages have weakened aggregate demand. Hence, labour market issues such as flexibility, uneven income distribution, poor wages and the financial crisis are two sides of the same coin. Both have a direct impact on the economic crisis and the current global imbalances. Copyright The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved., Oxford University Press.

Identifying innovative national markets for technical consumer goods

Abstract: Focuses on population characteristics that appear to make one nation more or less innovative for technical consumer products. Finds three predictors ‐ individualism, uncertainty avoidance and purchasing power ‐ to be related to national levels of new product ownership within Europe. Discusses the results, focusing on their implications for marketers seeking to export innovative technological consumer goods to Europe and elsewhere.

Home Demand and British Industrialization

Abstract: Household budget studies are used to assess working-class demand for manufactures over industrialization. Contrary to demand-side proponents, increased urbanization, enhanced opportunities for women's and children's work, and a declining subsistence sector all retrenched consumption patterns into demand for the products of traditional industries and decreased demand for the products of new manufacturing industries. However, consideration of national expenditure on necessities shows an increasing surplus available for discretionary expenditure between 1801 and 1841. This reflects an increased purchasing power of the middle and upper classes that may have manifested itself as substantially increased demand for domestic manufactures.