Study On The Consumption Structure Of Rural Residents In Shaanxi

Experiencing World Economic Crisis in2008and European Debt Crisis in2009, China’seconomy is facing difficulties such as unprecedented investment and increasingly decliningexport growth. It is inevitable for China’s economic to grow slowly due to seriously laggingconsumption structure and insufficient domestic demand, especially the obvious lower levelof rural residents’ consumption. Therefore, a deep study on changes in rural consumptionstructure and its influencing factors is important to fulfill its hierarchy transitions and regionaleconomic growth, and also offer strategic choice for accelerating new socialist countrysideconstruction and coordinated development of regional economy in urban and rural areas.Guided by theories in Modern Economics, Statistics, Demography, Econometrics andother subjects, using qualitative and quantitative analysis method comprehensively, takingconsumption structure as the breakthrough point, relying on Shaanxi rural residents and usingresearch techniques such as dynamic time series, static cross-section data and theircomparison, the survey makes an overall and systematical analysis on Shaanxi rural residents’consumption structure. This research mainly launches from the following three aspects:Firstly, after elaborating research background, significance of the topic, domestic andinternational research status and review, objects of study and related concepts are defined andrelevant research hypothesis is proposed; the relationship between rural residents’consumption structure and economic growth is analyzed; the evolution and developmentprocess of western consumption theory and the consumption function are introduced andreviewed, origin and relationship among a variety of consumer theories and viewpoints arerevealed by attempt, which lay the theoretical foundation for the next step of survey. Secondly,by Factor Analysis and Cluster Analysis, the evolution path of1980-2011Shaanxi ruralresidents’ consumption structure is dissected and classified into stages. On such basis, fromsuch aspects as Engel Coefficient of rural residents, internal and external relations amongfood, clothing, shelter and daily use, entity and labor consumption structure, the evolutionalfeatures of Shaanxi rural consumption structure are analyzed and summarized in details. Theeffects of income, family endowment and industrial structure are exemplified by making useof micro data survey of Shaanxi peasant households during2005-2012. Finally, based onresearch results and the actual situation in Shaanxi rural areas, aiming at promoting hierarchy transitions of rural consumption structure, countermeasures are suggested for increase of ruralresidents’ income, reasonable promotion of their personal quality, scientific adjustment ofindustrial structure and perfection of rural social security system.The main conclusions of this research are:(1) Since the Chinese Economic Reform, Shaanxi rural residents’ consumption structurechanged significantly, in which living consumption ratio in consumption expenditure clearlyreduced, enjoyment spending continuously raised, entity consumption gradually declined, andlabor consumption gradually increased.(2) By building linear regression, panel data model and ELES model, the effect of incomeis exemplified. The results show that the income from wage and household business, which isa stable source, mainly improves the consumption structure dominated by living consumptiondata, while property income and transfer income, which are the unstable, mainly improves theconsumption structure dominated by enjoyment or development consumption data.Low-income rural residents consumption demand is greater than high-income ones in respectof clothing, living, household appliances, medical care, education and entertainment withrising income, while food, other goods and services consumption ratio is not subject to theinfluence of income, higher income shows higher in its consumption level.(3) By setting up ELES model, panel data model and grey cognate analysis, the familyendowment’s influence is exemplified. The more members a family, the lower consumptionlevel, for the living consumption accounts for the biggest part among consumption structure.Since rural market cannot satisfy the consumption level and purchasing power of highlyeducated rural residents, their consumption level is inversely proportional to their educationlevel, while the marginal propensity to consume is proportional to the education level. Therural families with0-1or2-3people have almost similar consumption structure.(4) By establishing VAR model and linear regression model, an analysis is made for theeffect of industrial structure. It shows that changes of consumption structure have causedchanges of industrial structure in a certain extent, but only the changes in the tertiary industryhave a significant impact on structure transition layer because of low income. The vigorousdevelopment of three major industry will promote rural residents’ consumption level, reducethe proportion of consumption and rise the hierarchy of consumption structure.