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Population ageing, extended coverage of beneficiaries and rise in benefit levels of a public-funded universal social pension scheme (USPS) for elderly individuals may exert fiscal pressures on India’s General Government. Using accounting frameworks, this paper aims at an assessment of public expenditure requirements of USPS scenarios in the short term and their long-term implications for fiscal sustainability.

Short-term public expenditure requirements are quantified for the current pension scheme and proposed USPS scenarios, if pension benefits are adjustable for official poverty line, per capita income, the inflation rate and income elasticity of public pension expenditure. Long-term fiscal sustainability is determined by the methodology of generational accounting.

Public expenditure requirements for the USPS scenarios are remarkably higher as compared to the current expenditure on the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS). Short-term analyses offer economic justifications for an increase in pension benefits either by a single adjustment factor or combined adjustment factors but at a cost of remarkable increase in public expenditure requirements. Long-term analyses show that the IGNOAPS and proposed USPS scenarios are fiscally sustainable but sensitive to five parameters (productivity growth, inflation rate, discount rate, income elasticity public pension expenditure and income elasticity of health expenditure). A policy mix of these parameters leads to fiscal sustainability of the IGNOAPS and proposed USPS scenarios with differential impacts on inter-generational distribution of welfare by tax and transfer adjustments.

Application of the generational accounting methodology is new for India’s pension economics and may have applicability and relevance for future extensions and analyses of other fiscal policy issues. This paper sets a benchmark for such extensions and applications.

The analyses and implications offer economic justifications for increase in levels of pension benefits by the current pension scheme and proposed USPS scenarios, introduction of sustainable USPS scenarios under current fiscal policies and choice of design parameters for a fiscally sustainable USPS.

Social pensions have implications for providing income security and livelihood benefits for all elderly civilians in society.

The paper adds to the existing knowledge on economic analyses and fiscal implications of India’s old age pension policies in general and social pension policies in particular. Subject to the comparability of socio-economic structures and pension programmes, the methodology and public policy analyses of this paper may be of relevance and applicability for developing countries in Asia.

At the end of the nineteenth century, in the era of the second industrial revolution, falling working hours, rising disposable income, increasing urbanisation, rapidly expanding transport networks and strong population growth resulted in a sharp rise in the demand for entertainment. Initially, the expenditure was spread across different categories, such as live entertainment, sports, music, bowling alleys or skating rinks. One of these categories was cinematographic entertainment, a new service, based on a new technology. Initially it seemed not more than a fad, a novelty shown at fairs, but it quickly emerged as the dominant form of popular entertainment. This paper argues that the take-off of cinema was largely demand-driven, and that, in an evolutionary process, consumers allocated more and more expenditure to cinema. It will analyse how consumer habits and practices evolved with the new cinema technology and led to the formation of a new product/service.

The purpose of this is study is to identify sources of demand growth for apparel in the US based on consumer demographic profiles, regions, and product characteristics.

A two‐step procedure was utilized to model, estimate, and analyze purchasing decision and consumer demand for nine apparel products (male shirts, shorts, jeans and slacks and female slacks, skirts, shorts, dresses and jeans). This study is based on a survey conducted by the American shoppers' panel, which collects consumption data of various garments, socioeconomic profiles, and product characteristics.

The results indicate that purchase decisions are determined by garments' own prices, age, female employment, gender, regions, and the presence of children. The study also shows evidence that the effect of product‐specific pricing strategies would be limited to the targeted products and the origin of the product has minimal effect on consumer expenditures on apparel.

This study is one of the few that have used disaggregated apparel products and detailed demographic factors, thus has clear marketing implications and can be useful to the apparel industry.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a thorough analysis of meat demand in China and predict future trends in meat consumption.

Expenditure as well as Marshallian and Hicksian demand elasticities of various meats in China are evaluated using the linear almost ideal demand system.

Results from this paper show that pork, the primary meat in Chinese diets, has become a necessity and that poultry, beef, mutton, and fish are considered luxuries within the meat budget allocation of Chinese households. Furthermore, the results predict that for any increase in future meat expenditure, the largest share of that increase will be allocated to pork consumption.

This paper fills a gap currently present in the empirical literature regarding time series meat demand analysis in China. This paper makes use of newly available time series data on Chinese meat consumption and prices to estimate expenditure as well as own‐price and cross‐price elasticities. Implications for both domestic meat producers and grain exporters are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of rising food prices on food demand and nutrient intake among rural–urban migrants and whether such impact varies across income classes.

Using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), this study adopts a quadratic almost ideal demand system (QUAIDS) for food demand elasticity and an indirect estimation method for nutrient elasticity to investigate the effects of rising food prices on food demand and nutrient intake among rural–urban migrants.

The estimated results indicate that an increase in the price of pork alone would lead to a larger reduction in most nutrients among rural–urban migrants than other single targeted food group, and a simultaneous rise in the price of all food groups would have a remarkably adverse effect on the nutritional status of rural–urban migrants in comparison to the nutritional effects of a rise in one targeted food group. In addition, the nutritional effects of food prices across income classes show that the nutritional status is particularly vulnerable to rising food prices among low-income rural–urban migrants.

This paper focuses on analyzing the impact of rising food prices on the nutritional status of rural–urban migrants, a topic that is very limited in the literature. This study provides a fresh look at the effect of volatile food prices on food demand and nutrient intake among rural–urban migrants. The results indicate that income growth would have a remarkable positive effect on nutrient intake for rural–urban migrants, especially for low-income rural–urban migrants. However, an increment in nutrients due to a growth in income would not be far from enough to cover the reduction in nutrients as a result of a simultaneous rise in price of all the studied food categories at the same rate.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing household food consumption away from home in Beijing by type of food facility and type of meal.

Derived from the Becker's household production and consumption theory, the authors econometrically specified household expenditure function on food away from home. Box‐Cox transformed double‐hurdle models were estimated. The data were collected in 2007 in Beijing China by the authors, using a diary‐based method designed specifically for this study.

Household income, time opportunity cost and other socio‐demographic and economic factors were found to be important determinants of household participation and expenditure decisions for dining out. However, the importance of these factors varied by type of food facility and type of meal. Meanwhile, the estimated elasticities with respect to income were correspondingly higher than those for developed countries, suggesting that the demand for food away from home by Chinese households is still in an upward trend.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to analyze Chinese household food consumption away from home by type of food facility and type of meal. Besides, this study uses an exclusive dataset collected from a seven‐day diary‐based survey. The data include more specific information on food away from home than the Urban Household Income and Expenditure (UHIE) survey data conducted by National Bureau of Statistics of China. The UHIE data were extensively used in previous studies on food consumption in China, but are believed to significantly underestimate food away from home consumption.

This paper investigates whether an outcome-based school aid formula could improve fiscal and outcome equity significantly more than a typical aid formula would. When outcome-based formula is applied to foundation aid, fiscal and outcome equity deteriorates compared to Ohio's recent aid formula. However, when it is applied to power-equalizing aid, the latter improves fiscal and outcome equity more significantly than both foundation aid and Ohio's recent aid formula do. This paper further shows how to apply them to real-world cases. The lessons from this paper can be easily applied to similar grant systems with standardized test scores.

First, the income elasticities are calculated for different levels of income, for both the decision to spend money on sports and the amount of money that is spent. Second, the study researches whether different operationalisations of income (i.e. family versus personal) result in different elasticity values. Third, the effect of sports-specific and non-sports leisure variables on sports participation is investigated.

A representative dataset of 3,775 adults is used containing a wide variety of leisure characteristics, gathered by means of a face-to-face survey. By means of a Tobit regression model both the determining factors of sports expenditure and the income elasticities are analysed.

For lower income individuals, a rise in income has a relatively bigger influence on the probability to spend money on sports participation, than is the case for higher income individuals. A positive relationship is found with sex (male), education, number of minutes and disciplines of sports and membership of a socio-cultural organisation, while age, watching TV and attending cultural events have a negative effect.

The study provides evidence that income-based segmentation of sports participants could turn out to be an efficient policy tool. By lowering the monetary-burden for lower incomes, it can be expected that participation rates can be raised efficiently.

For the first time the relationship between income and expenditure is explored for different levels of income and for two operationalisations of income. Moreover, the inclusion of non-sports leisure variables allows investigating relationships between sports consumption and other leisure activities.

The impact of dietary changes associated with urbanization is likely to increase the demand for land for food production. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of urban economic development on changes in food demand and associated land requirements for food production.

Based on economic estimates from the Almost Ideal Demand System, feed conversion ratios, and crop yields, the authors forecast and compare future dietary patterns and land requirements for two types of urban diets in China.

The results show that the expenditure elasticities of oil and fat, meat, eggs, aquatic products, dairy, and liquor for the diet of capital cities are greater than those for the diet of small- and medium-sized cities. The authors forecast that capital city residents will experience a more rapid rate of increase in per capita demand of meat, eggs, and aquatic products, which will lead to much higher per capita land requirements. Projections indicate that total per capita land demand for food production in capital cities will increase by 9.3 percent, from 1,402 to 1,533 m2 between 2010 and 2030, while total per capita land demand in small- and medium-sized cities will increase only by 5.3 percent, from 1,192 to 1,255 m2.

The results imply that urban economic development can significantly affect the final outcomes of land requirements for food production. Urban economic development is expected to accelerate the rate of change toward an affluent diet, which can lead to much higher future land requirements.