Do consumer s tastes differ final 1.7. - HEC

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Table of content Table of content................................................................................................... 1 Introduction.......................................................................................................... 2 Utility Theory and Preferences.............................................................................. 3 ANALYSIS OF MARGINAL UTILITY ................................................................................................................... 3 ANALYSIS OF INDIFFERE NCE CURVES............................................................................................................... 3 ANALYSIS OF REVEALED PREFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 3 Literature and preferences.................................................................................... 5 S. SELVANATHAN: A SYSTEM-WIDE ANALYSIS OF INTERNATIONAL CONSUMPTION AND TRADE........................................ 5 CLEMENTS/CHEN: FUNDAMENTAL SIMILARITIES IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR................................................................ 8 G.S. BECKER: ACCOUNTING FOR TASTES...................................................................................................... 12 Personal capital......................................................................................................................................................................13 Social capital...........................................................................................................................................................................13 Other possible influence....................................................................................................................................................14 Preference formation ..........................................................................................................................................................16 Conclusion – Becker (1998)..............................................................................................................................................16 Consumer Behaviour Towards Yoghurt in Belgium and Poland: A Survey in Two Regions - an empirical analysis................................................................................17 Conclusion...........................................................................................................20 Recommendations...............................................................................................21 Bibliography.........................................................................................................22 B EKE T INNEBERG 1 19 MARCH 2003
Tastes are the same. Are tastes really the same? D O C ONSUMER’ S T ASTES D IFFER? Introduction When talking about taste, we first have to ask ourselves “What is taste?” Our main interest here is to analyse the meaning of taste as being a “liking or preference” 1 . Preferences are a key element in consumer research as they form the basis of purchase intentions, actual choice and consumption. This is why a lot of research has been done about preferences, evidently having an important impact on demand. On the other hand, this explains why studies take actual purchasing behaviour as an indicator for preferences and therefore also for taste. Just thinking of the variety of different cultures, one would be tempted to say that differences in taste must exist. By contrast, economists have analysed this issue in the light of demand curves. Most of them have concluded that tastes are similar. This is a rather surprising result, considering that consumption behaviour seems to be obviously different when comparing India with Scandinavia, for example. In which way would taste be assumed to differ? 1. First, taste should differ across space, like from Asia to Europe. 2. Second, taste could differ across time in the individual life-cycle, as an individual develops and taste changes with the years. 3. Third, taste may differ across generations, as grandparents, parents and grandchildren have different preferences. On the contrary, an argument speaking for a rapprochement of tastes is globalization. The liberalization of the world market leads to an increased availability of a larger range of products, available at places they had not been some years ago. This development might induce more and more similar tastes between cultures. The question whether tastes differ is also of economic importance for the more and more growing global trade. In case of slight differences, adapting a product to the specific local circumstances would be sufficient. In case of severe differences, it might even be better not to introduce a specific product on another market at all. The objective of the present paper is to carry out a survey of literature on preference. As preferences can be expressed by utility functions, the first part of the present paper introduces ways to measure preferences via utility or consumption. In order to enlighten different possible aspects, theoretical as well as empirical literature is going to be introduced. Therefore, the second part discusses the approaches of several authors and the models used. Finally, a comparative study on consumption of yoghurt in Belgium and Poland provides an empirical example. 1 Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 1989 B EKE T INNEBERG 2 19 MARCH 2003
Page 1: Beke Tinneberg Macroeconomic Modell
Page 5 and 6: D O C ONSUMER’ S T ASTES D IFFER?
Page 13 and 14: G.S. Becker: Accounting for Tastes
Page 17 and 18: Preference formation D O C ONSUMER
Page 19 and 20: Comparing the two countries, the av
Page 23: D O C ONSUMER’ S T ASTES D IFFER?

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