商品和服务的消费是人类福利的基本决定因素。消费在个体间的分布影响着许多重要的问题,包括经济、政治和社会领域的不公平和贫困等。在大多数国家,总消费是社会总需求最大的组成部分,因此,消费也成为了解释跨期经济活动变动的重要变量。在既定的收入水平下,消费决定了储蓄,进而通过资金的供给决定投资。可见,消费的研究是如此重要,其自然而然地成了20世纪经济研究的中心。 The consumption of goods and services is the basic determinant of human welfare. The distribution of consumption among individuals affects many important issues, including inequity and poverty in economic, political and social fields. In most countries, total consumption is the largest component of aggregate social demand and therefore consumption has also become an important variable in explaining changes in intertemporal economic activity. At a given level of income, consumption determines saving, which in turn, decides to invest through the supply of funds. It can be seen that the study of consumption is so important that it has naturally become the center of economic research in the 20th century.