Evaluation Of People's Living Standard From Consumption Angle

As economy and society are developing, raising the people's living standard has become an impotent goal of our government. How to correctly understand and evaluate people's living standard is the focus among researchers now, which is the starting point of this study. This dissertation re-examines this topic from a relatively new perspective. Draw on the idea of Purchasing Power Parity, comparative analysis the differences of the urban resident's living standard about China's 36 large and medium-sized cities through relative prices adjustment before and after. By doing so, it not only achieves an accurate assessment of China's urban resident's living standard but also scientifically analyze the price factors how to impact on the urban resident's living standard.The general framework of this dissertation is as follows: Chapter 1 is introduction, which is the presentation of the question and the research idea. It shows the significance and feasibility of this dissertation. Chapter 2 reviews the theory of the people's living standard and the theory of Purchasing Power Parity, including present research situation and achievements. Chapter 3 calculates the relative price level of urban residents, including the selection of index and the selection of weights. For the final phase, calculates the relative price index of each city relative to Beijing; Chapter 4 studies people's living standard from the consumer angle . Using the method of factor analysis and evaluation of the Engel coefficient to make a comparison analysis; Chapter 5 is conclusions and deficiencies of this dissertation. This dissertation also puts forward the suggestions for the further research.There are three innovational points in this dissertation. Firstly, purchasing power parity as an analysis tool, this used to evaluate the differences between different currency areas, to analyze price difference in the same currency area here. Secondly, uses two methods to evaluate people's living standard and makes comparative analysis. To some extent, overcomes the one sidedness. Thirdly, adjusts consumption indications by regional relative price index, then comparative analyzes the changes of each cities by each method between before adjustment and after adjustment. It is possible to analyze the impact of the price factor. The more the variation degree of the economic development level between the reviewed cities, the less the influence of the price factor to resident's living standard and vice versa.There are two disadvantages in this dissertation. Firstly, due to the limit of the data, uses the data of 2004, and failure to obtain updated data; secondly, this dissertation evaluates living standard mainly from price angle, so the index selected is limited, which can only measured by the monetary, including income and consumption indicators. It's inevitable to have some inadequate.