Children as consumers: investigating child diary expenditure data

摘要

We investigate expenditure behaviour of school-aged children using child diary information contained in the British Family Expenditure Survey. The estimates from an Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) for child expenditure suggest that drinks, sweets, books, and toys are 'normal' goods for children, but clothes, travel, leisure and vice products are 'luxury' items with income elasticities greater than one. Being a lone-parent child and having a working mother are important factors in determining child expenditure decisions. Importantly, a higher parental budget share on any given commodity is typically associated with an increased child budget share on the same commodity.