The Structure of Consumer Basket in the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic
Authors
Radim Gottwald
Keywords:
Consumer basket, consumer behaviour, consumer expenditures, expenditure shares, incomes of households, expenditures of households
Abstract
Purpose of the article: Nowadays, consumer behaviour is still at the centre of attention of many researchers. The consumer basket belongs among important economic characteristics, which determine the economic level of each country. The contribution of the article consists in identification of changes in the structure of consumer basket related to two chosen countries.
Methodology/methods: The development of the structure of consumer basket of average household in two countries during the period from 2004 to 2014 is analysed. The structure is expressed by means of expenditure shares, while the development by means of trend models. Coefficient of determination and correlation coefficient are used within choosing the appropriate trend function.
Scientific aim: The aim of this article is to assess the development of the structure of consumer basket of average household in the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic during the period from 2004 to 2014 by each country including mutual comparison. In detail, the development of consumer expenditure groups of consumer basket is assessed.
Findings: Expenditure shares are found to be enough volatile in time. The highest coefficients of determination are found just in case of quadratic function. Mostly, the found correlation in trend model is strong. Incomes and expenditures mostly increase in time. Based on the 2004 and 2012 comparison, the percentage rates expressing, how much incomes exceed expenditures increase about 11% by the household in the Slovak Republic, however the ones increase only about 3% by the household in the Czech Republic.
Conclusions: The structure of consumer basket of household and the structure of household expenditures in the Slovak Republic differs from the ones in the Czech Republic. Both differences and common features are found within the development of indicators. Common features could be caused by the fact, that these two countries constituted only one country till 1. 1. 1993.
