The focus of this thesis is the study of the demand side of the shadow economy. To achieve this, the informal consumption of Peruvian families located in urban areas is studied. This is possible thanks to a household survey collecting information on where people acquired their goods. The main contribution of the research is that it identifies an unexplored area in the literature with limited theoretical discussion and few empirical applications. Information about why people purchase from informal markets will supplement wider knowledge of labour allocation on informal opportunities. The thesis uses an Almost Ideal Demand System in order to verify some demand properties of informal consumption: income and price elasticities, the existence of linkages between working and purchasing decisions and explore the effects of bargaining on expenditure allocation. Four robust results are encountered. First, the inferiority of informal consumption is rejected. Formal and informal expenditure are classified as normal, but income responses on the latter (necessity) are lower than on the former (luxury). Second, there are linkage effects between working and purchasing in the informal and formal sectors. These effects are stronger for informal consumption and among the self-employed. Linkages are also not equally applicable across all goods. Better results are found within quasi-substitutes with leisure. Third, formal and informal food consumption reveals elastic demand curves and imperfect substitution between them, with higher compensated own-price and cross-price elasticities for formal markets. Fourth, household members bargain in their allocation decisions across markets, with females' decisions being closer to less-informal purchasing baskets. This result is clearer in the case of food consumption. Public policy recommendations based on these results are derived, where it is found that formalization policies will need to take into account their negative distributional effects.

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The rising importance of culture in social cohesion and economic development necessitates the analysis of cultural consumption from an economic point of view.This is important to understand household profiles which provide a certain typology on the socio-economic and demographic patterns of cultural consumption. In this thesis, we identify the households that spend on recreation and culture, the amount they spend and the potential factors that impact households&rsquo / recreation and culture expenditures in Turkey using the 2003 Household Budget Survey of the Turkish Statistical Institute. The results of a multivariate Tobit analyses suggest that total household expenditures, household size and its composition, age of household head and higher education level and place of residence are significant determinants of a household&rsquo / s expenditures on recreation and culture in Turkey. Our results also indicate recreation and culture to be luxury goods with an estimated income elasticity of 1.55. The multivariate analyses also showed very different expenditure patterns among household residing in different regions of the country. While this result may indicate different tastes and preferences of households residing in different regions it may also be that the supply of cultural goods differ between regions. The impacts of education level together with the socioeconomic factors on household recreation and culture expenditures provide useful insights not only for the suppliers of recreational and cultural goods and services, but also for the policymakers who can influence household consumption behavior (that includes both participation and spending) through using both demand and supply-side instruments.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:12:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2006-Fabio Sampaio Vianna Ramos Filho.pdf: 1341377 bytes, checksum: 3765a981914fbb9e6f21fb33b9857a02 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-08-28 / This dissertation involves a study on the bovine meat chain based on data collecting of the last years leading to an analysis about its functioning and a general view on its dynamics. The behavior of the bovine meat consumer market both worldwide and in Brazil tends to follow a new demand pattern. The initial premise is about the new demand patterns focusing on the issues of food quality and food security. From this premise it is believed that the organic food market presents a growth due to the new demands for quality food consumption. The aim of this dissertation is to study the process of building new production and consumption networks of bovine meat, following the hypothesis that recent transformations in the meat market are triggered by a consumption demand based on strict regulations and criteria of quality and food security. The development of organic cattle is based on control protocols as the certification for organic food and of other legal and control tools demanded by the meat market. It is presupposed that the organic meat production meets the requirements on demand patterns indicated by the market. The question on food security and quality is discussed in this dissertation and a new debate is opened on the complexity influence of the chain dynamics on consumption demand. This dissertation uses the principles of the New Economic Sociology to build a theoretical discussion on the dynamics of the meat chain and the consumption demand. Based on contemporary authors, the convention theory and the socio-technical theories are used to analytically explore the relationship and the behavior of the agents involved. We try to understand the tendency of the new forms of chain organization through an analysis on social and economic relations among the agents of the different involved segments. The new forms are represented by networks and alliances built around targets which are meant to take care of the consuming market in a direct way using a differentiated product and a mark that adds economic, social and environmental values. The results show that in order to analyze the potential market, it is necessary to analytically explore the consumption dynamics. The theoretical basis used in this dissertation is not enough to deepen the analysis on the issues of consumption dynamics. The new ways of organization of the organic food chain uses a principle from the theory of conventions which defines the rules starting from the relationship between the actors and that this collective process contributes to the construction of new technological and quality patterns. The dissertation concludes that it is necessary to deepen the studies and analyses of the new organic food networks and alliances by introducing theoretical principles that may help the understanding of this new initiative on the light of the sociology of consumption. / A disserta??o aborda a cadeia da carne bovina por meio de um levantamento de dados dos ?ltimos anos, permitindo uma an?lise sobre seu funcionamento e uma vis?o geral sobre a sua din?mica. O comportamento do mercado consumidor de carne bovina no mundo e no Brasil indica tend?ncias para um novo padr?o de demanda. A premissa inicial ? sobre os novos padr?es de demanda com enfoque na quest?o da qualidade e da seguran?a do alimento. A partir desta premissa, parte-se do pressuposto de que o mercado de alimentos org?nicos apresenta um crescimento movido as novas demandas de consumo por alimentos de qualidade. O objetivo da disserta??o ? estudar o processo da constru??o de novas redes de produ??o e de consumo de carne bovina, com a hip?tese de que as recentes transforma??es do mercado de carnes s?o movidas por uma demanda de consumo, baseada em r?gidas normas e crit?rios de qualidade e seguran?a alimentar. O desenvolvimento da pecu?ria org?nica ? pautado em protocolos de controle como a certifica??o dos alimentos org?nicos e dos demais instrumentos legais e de controle exigidos nos mercados de carnes. A priori, a produ??o de carne org?nica atende ?s exig?ncias sobre os padr?es da demanda apontados pelo mercado. A quest?o da qualidade e da seguran?a do alimento ? discutida na disserta??o e abre-se um debate sobre a influ?ncia da complexidade na din?mica da cadeia sobre a demanda de consumo. A disserta??o busca nos princ?pios da Nova Sociologia Econ?mica uma base para a discuss?o te?rica sobre a din?mica da cadeia da carne e a demanda de consumo. A teoria das conven??es e a teoria s?cio-t?cnicas, por meio dos autores contempor?neos, s?o recorridas para explorar analiticamente as rela??es e os comportamentos dos agentes envolvidos. Procura-se entender a tend?ncia das novas formas de organiza??o da cadeia por meio de uma an?lise sobre as rela??es sociais e econ?micas entre os agentes dos diversos segmentos envolvidos. As novas formas s?o representadas por redes e alian?as constru?das em torno de objetivos voltados a atender o mercado consumidor de forma direta, com um produto diferenciado e uma marca que agregue valores econ?micos, sociais e ambientais. Os resultados demonstram, que para realizar uma an?lise do potencial de mercado ? necess?rio explorar de forma anal?tica a din?mica de consumo. As bases te?ricas consideradas na disserta??o n?o s?o suficientes para aprofundar a an?lise nas quest?es da din?mica de consumo. As novas formas de organiza??o na cadeia da carne org?nica buscam na teoria das conven??es, um embasamento de que as regras s?o definidas a partir do relacionamento entre os atores e que este processo coletivo contribui para a constru??o de novos padr?es tecnol?gicos e de qualidade. A disserta??o conclui que ? necess?rio aprofundar os estudos e an?lises das novas redes e alian?as de carne org?nica, introduzindo bases te?ricas que colaborem para o entendimento sobre estas novas iniciativas no enfoque da sociologia do consumo.

Using 2002-2006 Household Budget Survey, this thesis investigates the income, consumption and saving dynamics of Turkish households within a life-cycle theory framework by employing cross-sectional analyses and cohort techniques. Cohort techniques are used not only to analyze these variables, but also to investigate the demographics and components of income and consumption. The analyses are deepened by dividing the sample according to the location of the households (urban-rural areas), and significant differences are found between urban and rural households, especially in terms of saving behaviors. Income, consumption and savings of formal and informal households are also investigated. Analyzing these households provides information regarding the precautionary saving since the higher income uncertainty of the informal households is expected to force them for extra saving due to precautionary motive. Finally, the life-cycle model and the precautionary saving hypothesis are tested by estimating log-linearized Euler equations. In the test of precautionary saving hypothesis, formal-informal data are used as a proxy for the risk variable. According to the estimation results, the predictions of the life-cycle model do not hold for Turkey but there is no evidence that this is due to precautionary saving.

This dissertation aims to contribute to the field of economics of competition policy by analyzing the demand structure and the market power in the Turkish beverage industry and in the cola market in particular. First, a demand system for the beverage products has been estimated by using a multi-stage linearized Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS). Using the own-price elasticity of cola in a SSNIP test (Small but Significant Non-Transitory Increase in Price), it is shown that cola market consists of a distinct relevant product market. Then, the demand elasticities of cola products at brand and package level have been estimated by the simple and nested logit models. Finally, the estimated demand elasticities of cola products have been used in measuring the degree of market power and predicting the effects of a hypothetical merger between Pepsi and Cola Turca by using a merger simulation technique. The results show that all cola suppliers have large price-cost margins for most of their products. Prices of the merging parties increase in average by 15 - 21% after the merger. The merger also causes the market price to increase by 16- 22% and consumer surplus to decrease by nearly 5% in average. Finally, depending on these results, the thesis recommends a stricter merger control criterion than dominance criterion for competition policy in Turkey.

首先針對租屋市場與與購屋市場，分別估計其所得彈性與價格彈性。對租 屋者而言，僅包括消費性的需求。藉由彈性的估計，我們可知道住宅為必 需品或是奢侈品；在價格上漲時，消費者是否有議價能力。另外再將購屋 市場依不同的需求目的，如居住目的與非居住目的，估計所得彈性與價格 彈性。對非居住目的的購屋者而言，僅包含投資性的住宅需求。接著利用 估計的消費性與投資性需求彈性，計算出對只有一棟房屋的購屋者，其消 費與投資需求佔房屋支出之比例。 In this paper, we estimated the elasticity of income and price for rental and purches housing. For rental housing, it just includes the consumption demand for housing. By these estimations, we can know housing is a luxury or a necessity. When the price increase, the consumers are able to charge. On the other hand, by the different targets --- living or not, there is only one or there are two or more houses, we estimate the elasticities. For two or more houses, it just includes the investment demand for housing. Then we use the elasticities to computer the share of consumption and investment in housing expenditure.

L'objectif général de cette thèse est l'évaluation ex ante des politiques économiques nécessaires en Europe dans la lutte contre le changement climatique. Au-delà de l'objectif environnemental, une attention particulière a été portée aux résultats d'emploi de ces politiques. L'analyse des scénarios construits dans cette optique, nous a conduits aux constats suivants: (i) pour respecter les recommandations du GIEC, l'action politique est urgente et doit être forte. (ii) La volonté nécessaire pour mettre en place ces politiques est certes significative, mais l'intensité des efforts n'a rien d'exceptionnel d'un point de vue historique (à l'inverse du réchauffement climatique qui est un défi historique). (iii) S'ils sont bien calibrés, les instruments économiques qui ont pour but de réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre, permettront également d'améliorer la situation de l'emploi en Europe. (iv) Néanmoins, il serait très risqué d'attendre, pour agir, de trouver des politiques climatiques qui puissent en même temps résorber la totalité du chômage européen, car il est très improbable que de telles politiques soient possibles. En effet, le marché du travail connaît actuellement de lourds déséquilibres, et fera face dans les prochaines décennies à des risques structurels importants. Un des scénarios de cette étude nous a amenés à entreprendre une investigation empirique pour vérifier un choix de modélisation que nous avons fait. Nous avons alors développé un modèle économétrique original pour capter les effets des changements de préférence dans la consommation. Le filtre de Kalman a ainsi été utilisé pour estimer le biais de changement de préférence au moyen d'un système de demande de consommation en données de panel. Plusieurs changements structurels indépendants de l'évolution des prix ou des revenus, tels que la montée des préoccupations des consommateurs pour l'environnement, la santé et le bien-être, ont été identifiés dans nos estimations. Par ailleurs les résultats empiriques apportés par ce modèle confirment que les changements de comportement de consommation simulés dans le scénario construit en première partie sont d'un ordre de grandeur raisonnable. / The general objective of this dissertation is the ex ante assessment of the economic policy response needed in the European Union to take up the climate change issue. Moreover, we tried to maximise the employment results of these policies. The results of the scenarios designed in this framework, lead us to the following beliefs: (i) to respect the recommendations of the IPCC, which is an absolute necessity, the political reaction needs to be rapid and strong from now. (ii) Despite the intensity of the policy response, the scale of the endeavours is not so exceptional in a historical perspective, while global warming is definitely a historical challenge. (iii) The economic instruments aiming at reducing GHG emissions will result, if they are well calibrated, in a significant better situation of the European labour market. (iv) However it would be very dangerous to wait for climate mitigation policies that could selve also completely the labour market issue, because such policies are unlikely to exist. Indeed, the European labour market currently faces serious difficulties and will face important structural risks in the next decades. It is a good thing if the mitigation policies participate to the solution, but the structural disequilibrium of labour market requires a much larger response from policy makers. One of the policy response scenarios led us to make an empirical investigation to verify the credibility of one modelling choice we made. Then, we developed an original econometric mode! aiming to capture the effect of the preferences change on consumption. We used therefore the Kalman fil ter to estimate this bias of preference changes in a consumption demand system in the framework of a panel data model. Severa! structural changes independent of prices or income motions, such as the rise in environmental, health, and well-being concems, are captured by our estimations. Moreover, the empirical results provided by the mode! confirm that the consumers behaviour changes simulated in the scenario built in the first part, are in a reasonable order of magnitude.