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The Consumption Function: Marketing's Role in Economic Development

Marye T. Hilger (Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Texas, San Antonio)

Management Decision

ISSN: 0025-1747

Article publication date: 1 April 1982

214

Abstract

Introduction Everyone agrees that increasing levels of economic development is good, but hardly anyone agrees on how to achieve it. Theorists cannot even agree on what constitutes economic development; each writer on economic development uses his own measure or measures of development. Many of these measures represent attempts to assess levels of production and/or consumption in the economies studied. Thus, it would seem that the achievement of higher levels of production and consumption is a common goal of economic development theorists. The production‐consumption thesis is an accepted tenet in economic development planning. Unfortunately, most of the production‐consumption theories and planners have focused their attention entirely on developing the productive capacity end of the equation, under the assumption that increases in consumption will automatically follow increases in production. (See Figure I for an illustration of this dichotomy between theory and policy.)

Citation

Cundiff, E.W. and Hilger, M.T. (1982), "The Consumption Function: Marketing's Role in Economic Development", Management Decision, Vol. 20 No. 4, pp. 36-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb001298

Publisher

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MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 1982, MCB UP Limited

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