The Causes And Regional Differences Of Urban Residents' Consumption Upgrading In China

In recent years,the contribution of consumption to economic growth has gradually increased,while the resistance of consumption growth is large.Consumption upgrading has become an important means to promote the growth of consumption.The essential content of consumption upgrading is the upgrading of consumption structure,and the index to measure the upgrading of consumption structure usually adopts Engel coefficient,but the upgrading of consumption structure is a systematic process,which only describes the Engel coefficient of food consumption change,and the structure level is too few to reflect the upgrading of consumption structure comprehensively and accurately.According to Maslow's psychological research,consumption behavior is dominated by consumption psychology,the psychological experience of low-level desire is strong and short,and the psychological experience of high-level desire is indifferent and long-lasting.Combined with the utility theory,we can draw the following conclusions: the marginal utility of low-level goods is relatively large and the decreasing speed is fast,while the marginal utility of high-level goods is relatively small and the decreasing speed is slow.Because of this difference in marginal utility between different levels of goods,with the increase of income level,the proportion of consumption expenditure of high-grade goods in total consumption increases,and that of low-grade goods decreases.Since 1997,in the overall urban household consumption,the proportion of survival consumption represented by food,tobacco,liquor and clothing in the total consumption has been declining,the proportion of developmental consumption represented by residence,transportation,communication,health care and medical services in the total consumption has been rising,the proportion of enjoyable consumption represented by household facilities,household articles,household services,education,cultural,recreation,miscellaneous goods and miscellaneous services in the total consumption tends to be stable,and the level of the overall consumption structure of urban residents keeps rising;In the regional household consumption of urban residents,the proportion of survival consumption in the total consumption of urban residents in the eastern region has always been lower than that of urban residents in the central and western regions,while the proportion of developmental consumption in the total consumption has opened a gap with that of the central and western regions since 2014,and the proportion of enjoyable consumption in the total consumption has started to be lower than that of the central andwestern regions at the same time,and the consumption upgrading gap of regional urban residents has been narrowing.As far as the consumption upgrading of the whole urban residents is concerned,the real income level and industrial upgrading have a significant positive impact on them,while the income structure,personal real social security expenditure and income uncertainty have a significant negative impact on them,while the aging population,population urbanization and government real social security expenditure have no significant impact on them.In addition,the interaction effect of real income level and personal real social security expenditure has a significant negative impact on it,and the positive and negative impact of each influencing factor on the upgrading of urban residents' consumption structure is increasing with the upgrading of urban residents' consumption structure.As far as the consumption upgrading of regional urban residents is concerned,the real income level and industrial upgrading have a significant positive impact on them,and the income uncertainty has a significant negative impact on them,while other variables including the interaction effect have no complete consistency on their impact.Therefore,in order to optimize the consumption structure of regional urban residents and promote the upgrading of the overall consumption of urban residents,the following suggestions are put forward: first,optimize the income structure of urban residents to maintain a sustained and stable growth of income;second,stabilize the overall price level and regulate some excessive prices;third,continue to deepen the supply side reform and promote the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure;fourth,deal with the aging and urbanization according to local conditions in combination with the characteristics of regional development;fifth,improve the social security system and reduce the burden of individual social security.