The Elusive Phenomenon: Unveiling Deconsumption in the EU

Michał Niewiadomski, Agata Niemczyk, Zofia Gródek-Szostak () and Marcin Surówka
Additional contact information
Michał Niewiadomski: Podhale Centre of Economic Sciences, University of Applied Sciences in Nowy Targ, ul. Kokoszków 71, 34-400 Nowy Targ, Poland
Agata Niemczyk: Department of Tourism, Krakow University of Economics, ul. Rakowicka 27, 31-510 Kraków, Poland
Zofia Gródek-Szostak: Department of Economics and Enterprise Organization, Krakow University of Economics, ul. Rakowicka 27, 31-510 Kraków, Poland
Marcin Surówka: Department of Corporate Finance, Krakow University of Economics, ul. Rakowicka 27, 31-510 Kraków, Poland

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 11, 1-24

Abstract: This article analyzes the phenomenon of deconsumption, which is relatively new and insufficiently researched or defined. Based on a review of the literature on the subject, it was found that there was little interest in deconsumption compared with sustainable consumption. Moreover, the number of scientific publications was negligible as the concept of deconsumption was rarely studied as a phenomenon. In addition, it should be noted that deconsumption can play a role in sustainable development and care for the environment and natural resources. Our study on this phenomenon sought to determine whether the phenomenon has spread to a noticeable degree, despite the deconsumption trend, which is important for its effective popularization in societies. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze whether the deconsumption phenomenon was reflected in macroeconomic data on consumption in selected European Union countries prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis of macroeconomic data on per capita consumption in the years 2000–2019 did not reveal a clear phenomenon of deconsumption; however, changes in the consumption structure were identified. In some countries, consumption fluctuated or decreased in certain sectors, suggesting the possible emergence of deconsumption. The computation method used in this study was fuzzy c-means clustering (FCM).

Keywords: consumption; deconsumption; fuzzy c-means; European Union; consumption structure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/11/4860/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/11/4860/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:11:p:4860-:d:1410167

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().