Consumer Economics

In 1899, MIT chemist Ellen H. Richards (1842-1911) instigated a series of annual "Lake Placid Conferences" (1899-1908) that became known as the foundation of the home economics movement. Richards's first interest was in improving the household's well-being by using sanitary and nutrition sciences, an objective that was passed on to the movement. However, by the 1920s, home economists rather identified their field of expertise as the "science of consumption," emphasizing the idea of "rational consumption." My aim in this article is to give an account of how this shift in focus came about, by telling the story of the home economics movement founded by Richards. I examine how the movement problematized consumption by highlighting its relationship, and perception of itself, regarding economics. I argue that the concept of consumption was central to the structuring of the movement from its beginning and allowed home economists to claim it as their field of expertise because, as they believed, economists were not addressing the issue.

This resource book is intended for a one-semester model course for high school economics for eleventh- and twelfth-grade students. The seven units in the book are linked to content ordinarily found in microeconomic and macroeconomic courses. Each unit contains 5 to 11 lessons, an author's note to the teacher, an author's letter to the students, classroom instructional materials, and sample test items. Each self-contained lesson contains a summary of economic content, an economic reasoning summary, instructional objectives, procedures, and student materials. The seven units in the resource book are: (1) "Why Economics Is Important"; (2) "Supply and Demand"; (3) "Consumers and Producers"; (4) "The Role of Government in Economics"; (5) "Macroeconomics"; (6) "Macroeconomics: Forecasting Our Economic Future"; and (7) "International Economics Issues." The book concludes with a section on extending teaching activ...

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The present article introduces the concept of Motivating Operation (MO) to the context of consumer choice and discusses the function of the concept of MO in the context of the Behavioral Perspective Model (BPM). Including MO as part of the consumer behavior setting leads to a more comprehensive analysis and, as a result, improves our understanding of the complex world of contingencies operating within consumer situations. First, the concept of MO helps to distinguish between discriminative and motivational functions of antecedents in the consumer behavior setting. Second, the MO concept includes both unlearned and learned motivating effects. Third, we will argue that some types of rules could also be MOs. A functional analysis of consumer choice should take into consideration the concept of MO because it is a contribution to the ongoing discussion to describe and classify antecedent variables that influence consumer behavior.

The purpose of this study was to examine high school adolescents' clothing shopping frequency, expenditure, purchase motivations, information sources, and store selection criteria and to determine the similarities and differences between male and female as well as impulse and nonimpulse shoppers. A survey design was used to collect the data. One hundred thirty-seven high school students, in 9th to 12th grade, 69 males and 68 females, were recruited. Similarities were found between male and female participants. They spent similar amounts of money on clothing and had similar degrees of conformity, sexual attraction, and recognition motivations. For both genders, friends were the most important clothing information source, and price was the most important criterion for store selection. Significant differences were also found between genders. Female participants shopped significantly more often than males and had higher recreation clothing purchase motivation. Certain information sources, such as friends and magazines/books, had more influence over clothing purchase decisions made by females compared to males. Certain criteria such as product variety/availability and store display carried more weight for females than males when making a store selection. When impulse and nonimpulse shoppers were compared, significant differences were found in all the clothing behaviors examined in the study (i.e., clothing shopping frequency, expenditure, purchase motivations, information sources, store selection criteria). Educational and marketing implications are recommended.

This resource book is intended for a one-semester model course for high school economics for eleventh- and twelfth-grade students. The seven units in the book are linked to content ordinarily found in microeconomic and macroeconomic courses. Each unit contains 5 to 11 lessons, an author's note to the teacher, an author's letter to the students, classroom instructional materials, and sample test items. Each self-contained lesson contains a summary of economic content, an economic reasoning summary, instructional objectives, procedures, and student materials. The seven units in the resource book are: (1) "Why Economics Is Important"; (2) "Supply and Demand"; (3) "Consumers and Producers"; (4) "The Role of Government in Economics"; (5) "Macroeconomics"; (6) "Macroeconomics: Forecasting Our Economic Future"; and (7) "International Economics Issues." The book concludes with a section on extending teaching activ...

In recent decades scholars have acknowledged that transactions in the informal economy have not vanished with modernization and industrialization as expected but rather remain an important contemporary aspect of overall production and consumption across the world, in both developing and developed countries. Yet little is known about the profile of the consumers in this realm or what drives them to purchase from the informal economy. A systematic review of the literature investigating consumption in the informal economy reveals a severely underdeveloped area of consumer studies with significant gaps in terms of its theoretical approaches, methods and regional coverage. The findings of the existing literature is that multiple motives are used by consumers for justifying their purchases in the informal economy beyond the dominant simplistic view that they do simply for financial gain or for a lower price (namely, it identifies social ends and failures in formal market provision in terms of availability, speed of provision and quality). The outcome is a recognition that responsibility to reducing this phenomenon with negative effects on governments, businesses, workers and consumers lies not just with public authorities but also practitioners who need to correct the failures in formal market provision. The significant gaps identified in the literature are then used to highlight a comprehensive future research agenda, which includes the need for the development of an institutionalist theoretical perspective when explaining consumers‘ participation in the informal economy and social marketing interventions.

Little attention has been paid to why consumers choose to purchase goods and services from the informal economy. Similarly, few studies have been conducted on consumer behaviour in relation to informal markets during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the article is to evaluate, for the first time, whether the COVID-19 pandemic influenced consumer behaviour in relation to the informal economy. Qualitative evidence collected in Iași, Romania, is reported. The finding is that the most important motives for purchasing goods and services from the informal economy are related to social ends, such as supporting local businesses, maintaining relationships with others, and enhancing sustainable development. The novel finding of this research is that community exchange in the form of mutual aid and reciprocity is not activated only for friends, neighbours, kin or work colleagues but also for local businesses facing financial difficulties. The customers are displaying solidarity and empathy for their situation. As such, this article adds to previous findings indicating that the motivation of lower cost is not the universal rationale for purchasing from the informal economy as many consumers choose to make purchases from informal market driven by social rationales. The paper ends by discussing the policy implications of the findings.

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of Saturday morning cartoons on children's perceptions of social reality. The study consisted of an analysis of programs appearing between 8 and 11 o'clock in the morning on September 15, 1990, and June 9, 1992, focusing on the ethnicity, gender, and age of characters, the positive or negative portrayal of characters, and the characters' positions of authority. The study found that the Saturday morning cartoons reviewed contained few older characters, and that the majority of these ...

The idea that consumers differ in the amount and type of effort they put into shopping is not new to marketing. Consumer Involvement is a need-based motivational attitude toward information systems and their development. The Means-Ends Chain (MEC) approach is used to identify the consequences and values that consumers attach to product attributes. Attributes differentiate competing products from each other in the mind of the consumers. Consumers' involvement with purchasing influences their purchase behavior and that different consumer types (market segments) can be identified on the basis of their involvement. Purchasing involvement is a promising variable in marketing for three reasons. First, it may be combined with products and situation involvement to better explain buying behavior. Second, it is possible that purchasing involvement may be significantly related to personality variables. Third, and perhaps of most immediate practical significance, purchasing involvement may be related to a number of purchasing activities which are not product specific and significantly impact marketing strategy.

In recent years, alternative business models – such as slow fashion and collaborative fashion consumption - have surged with the aim of the fashion industry to become more sustainable. At the same time, it has been stated that there is an increasing demand for sustainable fashion; however, it seems that consumers fail to translate that interest or intention for sustainable fashion into purchasing behavior. To this date, consumer attitudes, values, drivers, and barriers regarding sustainable fashion remain relatively under-researched. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the enabling and disabling factors that influence consumer behavior and to identify and profile the sustainable consumers, contrasting their behavior with the average consumers.

As a methodology, we implemented a mix-method approach consisting of three focus groups (n=25) followed up by a survey with 1’063 respondents to investigate and compare the attitudes, values, and perceptions of risks to engage with slow fashion and/or collaborative fashion consumption among non-sustainable fashion consumers (NSFC) and sustainable fashion consumers (SFC) in Spain. The data gathered from the focus groups was evaluated following a means-end chain (MEC) analysis, which links product attributes with consumers’ personal values. The survey was designed under the Theory of Planned Behavior principles and analyzed through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to identify the most influential factors in consumers' fashion purchasing behavioral intention (BI).

The results show that consumer perceptions of sustainable fashion differ considerably among sustainable fashion consumers and non-sustainable fashion consumers. For the average consumer, price is still a critical purchasing driver, and, therefore, the perception of sustainable garments as 'expensive' prevents them from engaging in SF. On the other hand, the more sustainably conscious consumers are, the less they buy brand-new, preferring alternatives as second-hand (mainly) or renting. The results of the SEM indicate that for SFC, personal norms, that is, their moral values, have the strongest influence on their behavioral intention to buy SF. Conversely, for NSFC, attitude is the primary indicator of BI; whereas, social norms, that is, perceived pressure from society and peers, exert a negligible influence in their intended behavior, which may indicate that Spain still lacks a strong sustainability culture. These findings endorse and significantly add to the literature on sustainable fashion consumer choice behavior and may help retailers and marketers to create more tailored retailing and communication strategies.

Little attention has been paid to why consumers choose to purchase goods and services from the informal economy. Similarly, few studies have been conducted on consumer behaviour in relation to informal markets during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the article is to evaluate, for the first time, whether the COVID-19 pandemic influenced consumer behaviour in relation to the informal economy. Qualitative evidence collected in Iași, Romania, is reported. The finding is that the most important motives for purchasing goods and services from the informal economy are related to social ends, such as supporting local businesses, maintaining relationships with others, and enhancing sustainable development. The novel finding of this research is that community exchange in the form of mutual aid and reciprocity is not activated only for friends, neighbours, kin or work colleagues but also for local businesses facing financial difficulties. The customers are displaying solidarity and empathy for their situation. As such, this article adds to previous findings indicating that the motivation of lower cost is not the universal rationale for purchasing from the informal economy as many consumers choose to make purchases from informal market driven by social rationales. The paper ends by discussing the policy implications of the findings.

... PATRICK C. JOBES IOANA-MINERVA ICOLISAN CATALIN STOICA University of New England University of Bucharest University of Bucharest ... Oberschall (1986) has described difficulties he encountered while teaching research methods in China. ...