Abstract

Consumption may be defined as any activity consisting of the using up of goods and services resulting in the direct satisfaction of human desires. Therefore we may be described as consumers when we are eating food, sleeping on a bed, visi­ting the doctor or going to school. It is undoubtedly true that consumption is the ultimate aim of all economic activities. In a sense it is therefore true to say that to plan consumption is to plan the whole economy. Any decision taken by the planners with regard to investment, saving, income or foreign trade is bound to have important repercussions on consumption.

The reverse is also true, i.e. any decision with regard to the planning of con­sumption must affect all of these and other important econo­mic variables. A study confined to· the planning of consumption must therefore be selective. We will start by giving a brief review of the basic theory of consumption confining our­selves to the macro aspects, since it is these aspects which are directly manipulated by the planners. Some of the basic concepts related to consumption and which will be extremely used in later chapter will also be briefly defined.

Chapter II discusses the question why the planning of consumption assumes great importance in development planning and some of the main problems facing underdeveloped countries in their attempt to restrain consumption. Having discussed the main objectives and problems of consumption planning we turn to a review of some of the main methods used in consumption planning? This is done in Chapter III.

The following three chapters concern the U.A.R alone. Since family-budget surveys constitute one of the main methods used as a basis for the projection and the planning of con­sumption, particularly in the U.AR., we will start this part with a brief review of the development of family-budget surveys since 1920 and until the most recent one of 1964/65. This is done in Chapter IV. The experience of UAR. in con­sumption planning as a part of her first attempt at comprehensive planning, namely that of the First Five-Year Plan ( 1959/60- 1964/65) will be discussed and critically evaluated in Chap­ter V. Our last Chapter will include an attempt on our part to project consumption expenditure for the years 1969/70 -1972/73

Department

Economics Department

Degree Name

MA in Economics

Date of Award

6-1-1970

Online Submission Date

5-1-1970

First Advisor

Galal Amin

Document Type

Thesis

Extent

130 leaves

Library of Congress Subject Heading 1

Consumption (Economics)

Rights

The American University in Cairo grants authors of theses and dissertations a maximum embargo period of two years from the date of submission, upon request. After the embargo elapses, these documents are made available publicly. If you are the author of this thesis or dissertation, and would like to request an exceptional extension of the embargo period, please write to thesisadmin@aucegypt.edu

Call Number

Thesis 1970/104

Location

mgfth

Download

Included in

Economics Commons

Share

COinS