Information support for research of financial behavior of households

The article substantiates the need for the formation of appropriate information support for the study of financial behavior of the population, due to the lack of official statistics. Existing sample surveys conducted by research teams do not always meet the objectives of this study, and most of them are not publicly available. It is argued that today there are difficulties in obtaining accurate and reliable data that represents the behavior of individuals and households. Official statistics form databases on households in terms of income and expenditure, material well-being, investment behavior, employment structure, migration, health and nutrition structure, education and other indicators It is determined that when studying the financial behavior of the population, it is advisable to establish not only the results of decisions about spending money, but also the motives. The constituent sources of information on the peculiarities of the formation of income and expenditure by peasant households are systematized and proposals for their improvement are developed taking into account foreign practice. It is established that there is a difference between the domestic practice and the European approach to estimating the value of products produced for own consumption. was donated to relatives and others. It is substantiated that in order to form a system of information support for the study of financial behavior of households, it is advisable to conduct a special survey, which should form indicators of available resources and cash expenditures and savings. It is established that this approach will create an information database that displays complete information on the amount of available resources, which includes in addition to cash income estimates of natural consumption from various sources, as well as the amount of loans and savings, as well as information on consumption expenditures and savings within households.

Malnutrition and the Risk of Catastrophic Health Expenditure in Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition among children not only affects their health consequences but also does it burden their households’ finance especially in developing countries. This study evaluates the household risk of catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) due to malnutrition treatments among malnourished children in Nigeria, according to zones and wealth quintiles. We simulate the CHE risk among households with malnourished children who seek treatment.  METHODS: The CHE risk due to malnutrition among treated was computed based on 1) the out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure and indirect costs associated with malnutrition treatment, and 2) household consumption expenditures. I derived the CHE risk associated with malnutrition across zones and wealth quintiles in Nigeria, using secondary data sources for healthcare utilization, OOP expenditures, and consumption expenditures. RESULTS: There was a large variation of CHE risk according to zones and wealth quintiles. Among the poorest households, those in northeast and northwest would have the highest risk of CHE, up to 59 and 47%, while those in southwest would have the lowest risk of 14%. For all zones, as the wealth increases, the CHE risk would decrease. There would be zero or very little CHE risk among the richest households in any zones. INTERPRETATION: Nutrition interventions will help malnourished children improve their health status. However, we should also be wary about the financial consequences of the treatment that households should bear.

Changes in Consumption Expenditures among Baby-boomers and Young-olds: Latent Transition Analysis

The aim of this study was to examine the longitudinal transition of consumption expenditures among both baby-boomers and young-olds in South Korea. We used data from the 6th (2016) and the 7th (2018) waves of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA). The final sample comprised 1,806 baby-boomers (age range=53-61 in 2016) and 1,483 young-olds (age range=65-74 in 2016). Consumption expenditures were observed with nine types of expenses: food, eating out, public education, private education, housing, health-care, clothing, cultural entertainment, and savings. According to the results from latent transition analysis (LTA), three consumption subgroups were identified among baby-boomers: “non-expenditure for education (NE, 69.7%)” group, “high-public education expenditures (PE, 10.7%)” group, and “high-public and private education expenditures (PPE, 19.6%)” group. For baby-boomers, NE and PE were more likely to remain the same type throughout the two waves, and PPE was most likely to move to NE two years later. Meanwhile, the consumption expenditures of young-olds were divided into “low-saving (LS, 63.7%)” group, “high-saving (HS, 40%)” group, and “education cost-centered (EC, 5.3%)” group. In the case of young-olds, the transition between the groups was unlikely to occur across the two waves which can be interpreted as having fewer life cycle changes than baby-boomers. This study suggests that it is necessary to take into account the difference between the generations when understanding longitudinal transition of consumption expenditures.

Positive Contribution of Pet Nutrition to the Economy and Humanity during the Pandemic Period

In this study, it is aimed to analyze the positive effects of pets on the market economy and people. The COVID-19 pandemic started with the virus outbreak that emerged in Wuhan City, the capital of Hubei Province of China, on December 1, 2019 [1], and the first case in our country was announced by the Ministry of Health on March 11, 2020. With the rapid spread of the epidemic in the world, closures in countries, travel restrictions, working from home and the introduction of the online education system, the rate of spending more time with pets, known as people's loyal friends, and the rate of adopting new animals have begun to increase. In this process, it has been seen that people are more interested in their animals and they are more sensitive in meeting their needs. It has been observed that they do not hesitate to allocate a significant part of their budgets in many subjects such as animal nutrition and veterinary care services, consumption expenditures such as pad shop products and purchasing new animals have increased, and this market has been dynamic. It is known that having a pet is good for blood pressure, greatly reduces the feeling of loneliness and depression in people, and always keeps their hopes warm. It can be said that taking care of furry friends after a long day helps people feel more optimistic and spending time with their pets helps them cope with stress, helps animals increase social relationships, and develops empathy, social skills, mutual love and sense of responsibility in children. It can be said that spending time with their pets is good for people's mood, and they even prefer their animals over other people in quarantine, and they gain social status. The trend of online shopping for pets also seems to become permanent. Pets are now more important than ever in our lives. The pandemic may ease in the near future, but the closeness of our pets will be permanent. It is seen that the tendency towards the adoption of pets and meeting their needs such as care and nutrition is increasing day by day. While various needs come to the fore in this trend, it is important to determine the economic role of consumption of these needs and their relationship with the reasons.

BANK LENDING DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS: EVIDENCE FROM SWITZERLAND

This paper is devoted to the analysis of the influence of bank lending on the economy in Switzerland during COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis of the main economic indicators (GDP and its components, inflation, monetary supply) before and during corona-crisis proves that the impact of corona-crisis is stronger than that of the 2008—2009 financial crisis. A sharp decline of GDP, exports and imports is underlined. The components of GDP that were most stable over the last 12 years and did not decrease during the 2008—2009 financial crisis, namely «Households Consumption Expenditures» and «Total Consumption Expenditures», had a negative trend in 2020. It outlines the non-economic nature of the crisis. The pandemic period is characterized by growth of inflation and changes of the money supply structure, such as a reduction of deposits in transaction accounts by half. The most vulnerable economic entity was the population, whose solvency decreased significantly. It led to the consumption and transactions reduction. It is underlined that in such conditions bank lending can be used to boost consumption, consumer demand, stimulate economic growth. The authors’ analysis demonstrates that the amounts of credit lines and utilisation were higher in 2020 during ongoing pandemic compared to the previous year. Loans to individuals remain the most significant in banks credit portfolio, its share was 66 % at the end of 2020. At the same time corporate loans grow faster during the crisis, which indicates businesses have higher demand for credit and use it as a crisis management tool. Contrary to the existing opinion on the negative impact of bank lending on inflation, the article proves that the increase of bank lending as part of fiscal and monetary policy measures has a positive impact on economic recovery during and after the crisis. The analysed Swiss experience can be used in Ukrainian realities. Keywords: bank loan, mortgage loan, corporate loan, lending, Switzerland, COVID-19. JEL Classification Е42, Е50, F29, G21 Formulas: 0; fig.: 7; tabl.: 2; bibl.: 17.

Markups for Consumers

A central motivating factor for studying price markups is their effect on consumer welfare. However, reported estimates of (firm-level) price markups in the literature often focus on industry or cross-country comparisons. These treat different industries equally rather than based on how relevant they are for consumers. We propose markup measures in which firm-level price markups are weighted according to consumption expenditures in the respective industries. Using a concordance table between consumption categories (otherwise used for the calculation of consumer price indices) and a firm’s industry classification, we report results for Germany for the years 2002 through 2016. We find that consumption-weighted price markups are higher and have increased faster than the conventionally reported revenue-weighted markups. We further show that consumption-weighted markups are highest for low-income households, highlighting the potential role of price markups as a contributing factor to changes in inequality in society.

Causes and effects of inflation in Poland

In the paper it is discussed the causes and effects of inflation in Poland. The paper analyzes inflation in recent years, including changes caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Undoubtedly, the spread of the coronavirus has contributed to the changes in the economy. Inflation is one of the main macroeconomic indicators that reflect the economic situation of a certain country. It occurs when the prices of goods and services in the market increase, so each subsequent year you can buy less for the same amount. Inflation occurs when the price increase is constant and persists over a specific period of time, then the purchasing power decreases (M. Gamrot, 2014). It is not a rule that the overall price index is influenced most by the products that have the greatest price appreciation. The pass-through to the inflation rate also depends on the share of a product's "weight" in conventional household consumption expenditures. CPI inflation in 2021 in Poland is influenced, to the greatest extent, by energy prices causing food prices increase and core economic inflation. The factors forming inflation, are the so-called, inflation expectations significantly influencing consumption or investment decisions. Measures taken in the economic policy, such as a significant loosening of monetary or fiscal policy contributed to the mitigation of the effects of COVID-19.

Psychological Needs, Physiological Needs and Regional Comparison Effects

This paper innovatively constructs a panel extended linear expenditure system (ELES) model including the theory of internal and external habit formation and analyzes the time effect of consumption habits and the regional differences of the comparison effects on rural residents in a variety of consumption expenditures from a temporal and spatial perspective. This research demonstrates the following. Firstly, overall, rural residents have least internal habits in terms of subsistence spending, followed by developmental spending and the most in enjoyment spending. Secondly, China’s rural residents consider the “actual use value” of commodities in “introverted” consumption expenditures; but in “export-oriented” consumption expenditures, besides the “actual use value” of the goods, they also seek to fulfill their “emotional demands”. Thirdly, there is the largest comparison effect on food and housing consumption expenditures for rural residents in coastal economic developed regions, and the smallest comparison effect on clothing, transportation, cultural and educational expenditures. It is the largest comparison effect on clothing and medical care expenditures for rural residents in underdeveloped regions of the central and western, and the smallest comparison effect on food and housing consumption expenditures.

Twice Is Nice: The Benefits of Two Ground Measures for Evaluating the Accuracy of Satellite-Based Sustainability Estimates

Satellite data offer great promise for improving measures related to sustainable development goals. However, assessing satellite estimates is complicated by the fact that traditional ground-based measures of these same outcomes are often very noisy, leading to underestimation of satellite performance. Here, we quantify the amount of noise in traditional measures for three commonly studied outcomes in prior work—agricultural yields, household asset ownership, and household consumption expenditures—and present a theoretical basis for properly characterizing satellite performance in the presence of noisy ground data. We find that for both yield and consumption, repeated ground measures often disagree with each other, with less than half of the variability in one ground measure captured by the other. Estimates of the performance of satellite measures, in terms of squared correlation (r2), which account for this noise in ground data are accordingly higher, and occasionally even double, the apparent performance based on a naïve comparison of satellite and ground measures. Our results caution against evaluating satellite measures without accounting for noise in ground data and emphasize the benefit of estimating that noise by collecting at least two independent ground measures.