Description
This classic text has introduced generations of students to the economic theory of consumer behaviour. Written by 2015 Nobel Laureate Angus Deaton and John Muellbauer, the book begins with a self-contained presentation of the basic theory and its use in applied econometrics. These early chapters also include elementary extensions of the theory to labour supply, durable goods, the consumption function, and rationing. The rest of the book is divided into three parts. In the first of these the authors discuss restrictions on choice and aggregation problems. The next part consists of chapters on consumer index numbers; household characteristics, demand, and household welfare comparisons; and social welfare and inequality. The last part extends the coverage of consumer behaviour to include the quality of goods and household production theory, labour supply and human capital theory, the consumption function and intertemporal choice, the demand for durable goods, and choice under uncertainty.
Chapter
2.3 Cost minimization and the cost function
2.4 Properties of demands
2.5* Duality in the theory of demand
2.6* Revealed preference theory
2.7** The distance function
3.2 The linear expenditure system
3.4 A new model of demand
4 Extensions to the basic model
4.1 The simple neoclassical model of labor supply
4.2 Intertemporal extensions, the consumption function, and
durable goods
4.3 Constraints on purchases and rationing
Part
Two Separability and Aggregation
5 Restrictions on preferences
5.1 Commodity groups and separability: an elementary overview
5.2* Separability and two-stage budgeting: further results
5.3 Strong separability and additive preferences
5.4 Homotheticity and quasi homotheticity
6 The theory of market demand
6.1 Exact linear aggregation
6.2* Exact nonlinear aggregation
6.3 Aggregation with endogenous labor supply
6.4 Aggregation under restrictions
Part Three Welfare and Consumer
Behavior
7.1 The true index of the cost of living
7.2 Quantity indices and real consumption indices
7.3 Cost-of-living subindices
8 Household characteristics, demand, and household
welfare comparisons
8.2 Commodity specific generalizations of Engel's model
8.3 Empirical applications
8.4 Equivalence scales in perspective
9 Social welfare and inequality
9.1 Social welfare functions and their arguments
9.2 Social welfare and inequality
Part
Four Extensions and Applications
10 The quality of goods and household production theory
10.1 Household production theory
10.2 The relevance of household production theory to quality
measurement
10.3 An alternative view of quality
10.4 Other aspects of quality
11.1 The participation decision
11.2 Nonlinear constraints and restrictions on hours
11.3 Labor supply in the long run
12 The consumption function and intertemporal choice
12.1 Intertemporal planning and the life cycle
12.2 The dynamics of income and consumption
12.4 Consistency in intertemporal choice
13 The demand for durable goods
13.2 Stock-adjustment models and costs of adjustment
13.3 The discretionary replacement model
13.4 Constraints on sales and on borrowing
13.5 Discrete choice, diffusion, and cross-section analysis
14 Choice under uncertainty
14.1 The characterization of uncertainty
14.2 The axioms of choice under uncertainty and expected utility
maximization
14.3 Some standard applications: risk aversion and the allocation of
wealth
14.4 Intertemporal consumption decisions under uncertainty
14.5 Other applications: the theory of search
Economics and Consumer Behavior
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