Durability and Asymmetry in UK Consumers' Expenditure

Steven Cook

International Review of Applied Economics, 2000, vol. 14, issue 1, 113-121

Abstract: Cook et al. (1998) have recently proposed the hypothesis of a positive relationship between the durability of consumers' expenditure and the asymmetric behaviour it exhibits. Some support was found for this hypothesis via the application of Sichel's (1993) univariate tests of business cycle asymmetry to quarterly data on the components of UK consumers' expenditure. In this paper this hypothesis is revisited, with the original analysis extended in a number of ways. First, the hypothesis is examined using annual data over a longer span than the original study, potentially allowing more business cycles to be captured. Secondly the effects of alternative means of detrending, a prerequisite for the analysis, are considered. Using durable, non-durable and total consumption data for the UK, the 'durability-asymmetry' hypothesis is found to hold. It is also found that a previously noted aggregation paradox disappears, but a new temporal aggregation paradox is uncovered. Significantly, the manner in which the data are detrended is also seen to influence results.

Date: 2000
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/026921700101515 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:irapec:v:14:y:2000:i:1:p:113-121

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CIRA20

DOI: 10.1080/026921700101515

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Applied Economics is currently edited by Professor Malcolm Sawyer

More articles in International Review of Applied Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().