Search

In the present study, we propose a novel conceptualization of homeownership in the United States as a special commodity, whose consumption involves a two-stage process: homeownership entry wherein the ability to consume is pivotal, and homeownership retention wherein the outcome rests on economic security. Based on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we test this conceptualization with consumption ability being proxied by income and economic security by liquid wealth. Three hypotheses are verified: (1) income predicts first-time renters' chance of becoming homeowners but has weakened influence on homeownership retention; (2) liquid wealth constitutes the central determinant for first-time homeowners' ability to avoid going back to renting; and (3) nonliquid wealth fails to exhibit a significant impact on either homeownership stage. By revealing the two separate stages of different homeownership dynamics, this study is the first to systematically explore the built-in contradiction of capitalist housing markets. Policy implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heathcote et al. (2010) conducted an empirical analysis of several dimensions of inequality in the United States over the years 1967-2006, using publicly-available survey data. This paper expands the analysis, and extends it to 2021. We find that since the early 2000s, the college wage premium has stopped growing, and the race wage gap has stalled. However, the gender wage gap has kept shrinking. Both individual- and household-level income inequality have continued to rise at the top, while the cyclical component of inequality dominates dynamics below the median. Inequality in consumption expenditures has remained remarkably stable over time. Income pooling within the family and redistribution by the government have enormous impacts on the dynamics of household-level inequality, with the role of the family diminishing and that of the government growing over time. In particular, largely due to generous government transfers, the COVID recession has been the first downturn in fifty years in which inequality in disposable income and consumption actually declined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seasonality is a natural feature of wild caught fisheries that introduces variation in food supply, and which often is amplified by fisheries management systems. Seasonal timing of landings patterns and linkages to consumption patterns can have a potentially strong impact on income for coastal communities as well as import patterns. This study characterizes the relationship between seasonality in seafood production and consumption in the United States by analyzing monthly domestic fisheries landings and imports and retail sales of farmed and wild seafood from 2017 to 2019. Analyses were conducted for total seafood sales, by product form, by species group, and by region of the United States. The data reveal strong seasonal increases in consumption around December and March. Seasonal increases in consumption in Spring and Summer occurred in parallel with domestic fishing production. Domestic landings vary by region, but most regions have peak fishing seasons between May and October. Alaska has the largest commercial fishery in the United States and seasonal peaks in Alaska (July/August, February/March) strongly influence seasonality in national landings. Misalignment between domestic production and consumption in some seasons and species groups creates opportunities for imports to supplement demand and lost opportunities for domestic producers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the symmetric and asymmetric effects of house price changes and a few other macroeconomic variables on durable and non-durable consumption separately. The study considers the nonlinear panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach (Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimation (Pesaran, 1997; Pesaran et al., 1999)) for cointegration and error-correction modeling, and uses annual data from fifty states of the U.S. The results show that changes in house prices have asymmetric effects on both durable and non-durable consumption in the long run. To dig deeper into the relationship between house price and consumption, I divide the fifty U.S. states into three categories: high-, middle- and low-income states. This helps to examine how the responsiveness of durable and non-durable consumption varies across these three categories. The findings show that the low-income states are affected more by changes in house prices than that of the high- and middle-income states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue d'élevage et de Médecine Vétérinaire des pays Tropicaux is the property of CIRAD and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

United States households' consumption expenditures and car purchases collapsed during the Great Recession and more so than income changes would have predicted. Using CEX data, we show that both the extensive and the intensive car spending margins contracted sharply in the Great Recession. We also document significant cross‐cohort differences in the impact of the Great Recession including a stronger reduction in car spending by younger cohorts. We draw inference on the sources of the Great Recession by investigating which shocks can explain household choices in a 60 period life‐cycle model with idiosyncratic and aggregate shocks fitted to aggregate and life‐cycle moments. We find that the Great Recession was caused by a combination of large aggregate income and wealth shocks, while cross‐cohort adjustment patterns imply a role for life‐cycle income profile shocks. We also find a role for car loan premia shocks in accounting for car spending and car loans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Textile waste generation does not occur evenly throughout Florida, United States. • Counties with higher incomes generated 95.7 lb of textile waste per person per year. • Counties with lower incomes generated only 54.7 lb of textile waste per person per year. • Textile recycling behavior was relatively even across areas. • Wealthier counties contribute more to the problem of textile waste. The amount of post-consumer textile waste (PCTW) generated annually in the United States has increased nearly ten-fold since the 1960s to exceed more than 34 billion pounds annually. Of the waste generated, 66% is sent to landfills, 19% is combusted with energy recovery, and only 15% is recycled. When left to decompose in landfills, PCTW decomposes, producing harmful leachates and greenhouse gases including methane. In this study, we used publicly available data from 67 counties in the state of Florida from 2014 to 2019 to assess how PCTW generation and recycling behaviors differ by area-level demographic, socioeconomic, and retail characteristics. We also used publicly available data on landfills to determine whether these same factors were associated with having more landfills per capita in a county. This study provides preliminary evidence that people living in areas with higher incomes, that are more racially segregated, and that have more clothing stores generate significantly more textile waste than people in other areas. In contrast, there were more landfills per capita in areas with lower incomes and fewer landfills per capita in areas that were more racially segregated. Textile recycling occurred at relatively uniform rates across counties. Taken together, these findings support the understanding that textile waste represents an issue of environmental injustice; wealthier communities contribute more PCTW to landfills, which are more commonly located in communities with lower socioeconomic status. Multipronged solutions are needed to produce relevant behavior change, including efforts and policies that seek to reduce textile consumption and increase textile recycling at the individual and societal level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply chain disruptions, human and animal health concerns, and environmental impacts of livestock production have spurred renewed attention to animal protein consumption in the U.S. Prior research has sought to better understand animal protein consumption by assessing demographic and socioeconomic determinants. However, physical exercise represents a behavioral determinant of consumption that is societally important and, thus far, has not been considered in empirical assessments. Our objective was to quantify the association of exercise with the consumption of total protein, beef, pork, poultry, seafood, eggs, and dairy among U.S. adults. We analyzed 24 h dietary recall and physical activity data from adults in the 2007-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The association of exercise with protein consumption (total and disaggregated animal protein) was assessed using ordinary least squares and multivariate Tobit regression. Non-linear associations of exercise with total protein consumption were found, with the magnitude of association highest at 121-180 min per day of exercise. Non-linear associations were also found with animal protein consumption, which differed in sign and magnitude across protein sources. The magnitudes of association, paired with a sizable share of the study sample engaged in exercise, suggest a substantial influence of exercise on protein consumption habits in the U.S.

Background: The emergence of smartphones has sparked a transformation across multiple fields, with health care being one of the most notable due to the advent of mobile health (mHealth) apps. As mHealth apps have gained popularity, there is a need to understand their energy consumption patterns as an integral part of the evolving landscape of health care technologies., Objective: This study aims to identify the key contributors to elevated energy consumption in mHealth apps and suggest methods for their optimization, addressing a significant void in our comprehension of the energy dynamics at play within mHealth apps., Methods: Through quantitative comparative analysis of 10 prominent mHealth apps available on Android platforms within the United States, this study examined factors contributing to high energy consumption. The analysis included descriptive statistics, comparative analysis using ANOVA, and regression analysis to examine how certain factors impact energy use and consumption., Results: Observed energy use variances in mHealth apps stemmed from user interactions, features, and underlying technology. Descriptive analysis revealed variability in app energy consumption (150-310 milliwatt-hours), highlighting the influence of user interaction and app complexity. ANOVA verified these findings, indicating the critical role of engagement and functionality. Regression modeling (energy consumption = β₀ + β₁ × notification frequency + β₂ × GPS use + β₃ × app complexity + ε), with statistically significant P values (notification frequency with a P value of .01, GPS use with a P value of .05, and app complexity with a P value of .03), further quantified these bases' effects on energy use., Conclusions: The observed differences in the energy consumption of dietary apps reaffirm the need for a multidisciplinary approach to bring together app developers, end users, and health care experts to foster improved energy conservation practice while achieving a balance between sustainable practice and user experience. More research is needed to better understand how to scale-up consumer engagement to achieve sustainable development goal 12 on responsible consumption and production., (©Abdullah Almasri, Tatyana Y El-Kour, Liliana Silva, Yousef Abdulfattah. Originally published in JMIR Human Factors (https://humanfactors.jmir.org), 10.05.2024.)

We show that consumption expenditures for older households are more responsive to monetary policy shocks than for young‐ or middle‐aged households. A one‐standard‐deviation expansionary monetary policy shock induces a statistically significant and quantitatively large (1.7%) increase in aggregate consumption for old households over the ensuing 3 years. The responses for young‐ and middle‐aged households are smaller and not statistically significant. We also present evidence, suggesting that life‐cycle wealth effects play a role in driving the responses. We then build the wealth mechanism into a partial equilibrium life‐cycle model, which can qualitatively match the empirical patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, the ratio of consumption to GDP has risen steadily over the past half century. In trying to understand why this ratio has increased so much, it is argued that standard models of the consumption function, built up from the neoclassical theory of constrained optimization, cannot offer a satisfactory answer. An alternative perspective is offered whereby aggregate consumption expenditure is seen as primarily the outcome of the population adopting widely upheld rules ('meso-rules') in a complex economic system. Aggregate consumption is viewed as the outcome of two contrasting historical processes: one mainly involving pre-committed, rule-bound choices and the other involving open-ended choices, made knowingly in the face of uncertainty, to adopt new meso-rules concerning the consumption of novel kinds of goods and services. The former process provides the degree of order that must be present in any complex system and the latter facilitates evolutionary change to occur. Using over half a century of data, the US consumption function is modelled successfully on the presumption that the economy is a complex system. The evidence supports the hypothesis that the ratio of consumption to GDP has risen because of the diffusion of a 'culture of consumerism' in the post-war era and that the limit of this process is now being approached, with important macroeconomic and social implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deaths related to opioid use have skyrocketed in the United States, leading to a public health epidemic. Research has shown that both biological (genes) and environmental (stress) precursors are linked to opioid use. In particular, stress during adolescence–a critical period of frontal lobe development–influences the likelihood of abusing drugs. However, little is known about the biological mechanisms through which adolescent stress leads to long-term risk of opioid use, or whether genetic background moderates this response. Male and female C57BL/6J and BALB/cJ mice were exposed to chronic variable social stress (CVSS) or control conditions throughout adolescence and then tested for morphine locomotor sensitization or morphine consumption in adulthood. To examine possible mechanisms that underlie stress-induced changes in morphine behaviors, we assessed physiological changes in response to acute stress exposure and prefrontal cortex (PFC) miRNA gene expression. Adolescent stress did not influence morphine sensitization or consumption in BALB/cJ animals, and there was limited evidence of stress effects in female C57BL/6J mice. In contrast, male C57BL/6J mice exposed to adolescent CVSS had blunted morphine sensitization compared to control animals; no differences were observed in the acute locomotor response to morphine administration or morphine consumption. Physiologically, C57BL/6J mice exposed to CVSS had an attenuated corticosterone recovery following an acute stressor and downregulation of twelve miRNA in the PFC compared to control mice. The specificity of the effects for C57BL/6J vs. BALB/cJ mice provides evidence of a gene-environment interaction influencing opioid behaviors. However, this conclusion is dampened by limited locomotor sensitization observed in BALB/cJ mice. It remains possible that results may differ to other doses of morphine or other behavioral responses. Long-term differences in stress reactivity or miRNA expression in C57BL/6J mice suggests two possible biological mechanisms to evaluate in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the years following the First World War, railroad clerical workers in the United States struggled to participate in the mass consumption marketplace and enjoy the material aspects of middle-class life. Drawing upon letters they wrote to their union in April 1920, this article examines railroad clerks' family consumption choices, strategies and aspirations. Given the gap between their incomes and their needs and desires, these 'white-collar' families made the kinds of marketplace choices and engaged in the kinds of household survival strategies usually associated with the 'blue-collar' working class. At the same time, clerks and their families aspired to middle-class lifestyles and strove to achieve 'white-collar' patterns of consumption, investing in forms of social and cultural capital that might distinguish them from the manual working class. Viewed through the lens of consumption, railroad clerks' letters highlight the ambiguity and permeability of the 'collar line' at the dawn of the age of mass consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the United States has witnessed profound changes in the sociocultural valuation of dogs, variously described as humanization, sentimentalization, or sacralization. A broad look at this "sacralization" of dogs in the United States reveals that this changing valuation has altered dogs' place within economic processes. In particular, these changes parallel Viviana Zelizer's work on the changing valuation of children a century ago. In this article, we further specify Zelizer's insights by arguing that these accompanying economic transformations are best understood as shifting of a dogs' place within budgetary units: from objects for human consumption to fellow actors humans consume with and around. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dietary Guidelines for Americans acknowledge the importance of seafood in the American diet. This paper examines the proportion of United States adults who report eating any fish, shellfish, or seafood by sociodemographic and health-related characteristics. Using the 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data, this paper analyzes non-pregnant adults, 20 years of age and older who reported consuming any fish or shellfish during the last thirty days. Nearly 71 percent of respondents indicated consuming fish, 53 percent reported consuming shellfish, and 80 percent reported consuming seafood. Respondent's odds of reporting having eaten seafood increase with age and education for those who identify as non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic Asian, and Hispanics/Latino(s) compared to their non-Hispanic White counterparts. Health related variables including body mass index, sleep issues, depression, and whether or not one currently smokes do not affect the odds of fish, shellfish, or seafood consumption. Given the importance of seafood for a healthy diet, more targeted efforts for less educated, younger, and lower income individuals are needed to increase exposure to various types of fish and shellfish. Additionally, seafood options that are more readily available in a variety of venues can promote intake, but any increase in seafood production should be achieved in ways that are both environmentally and economically sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the United States has witnessed profound changes in the sociocultural valuation of dogs, variously described as humanization, sentimentalization, or sacralization. A broad look at this "sacralization" of dogs in the United States reveals that this changing valuation has altered dogs' place within economic processes. In particular, these changes parallel Viviana Zelizer's work on the changing valuation of children a century ago. In this article, we further specify Zelizer's insights by arguing that these accompanying economic transformations are best understood as shifting of a dogs' place within budgetary units: from objects for human consumption to fellow actors humans consume with and around. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent water quality crises in the United States, and recognition of the health importance of drinking water in lieu of sugar-sweetened beverages, have raised interest in water safety, access, and consumption. This review uses a socioecological lens to examine these topics across the life course. We review water intakes in the United States relative to requirements, including variation by age and race/ethnicity. We describe US regulations that seek to ensure that drinking water is safe to consume for most Americans and discuss strategies to reduce drinking water exposure to lead, a high-profile regulated drinking water contaminant. We discuss programs, policies, and environmental interventions that foster effective drinking water access, a concept that encompasses key elements needed to improve water intake. We conclude with recommendations for research, policies, regulations, and practices needed to ensure optimal water intake by all in the United States and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This brief history of U.S. rice consumption from 1680 to 1960 traces the influences of race and region in shaping the prevalence of rice in certain communities over others. It examines the earliest cuisines that significantly integrated rice into the diet, in the Carolina Lowcountry and Cajun Louisiana during the colonial era and in the annexed Mexican territories of the Southwest and Asian communities of the West Coast in the nineteenth century. Outside those areas, rice was not generally consumed as a regular staple. As rice production expanded westward in the late nineteenth century, consumers in the newer areas did not embrace rice as the industry had expected. The turning point came after World War II when cooperative rice associations put forth national publicity campaigns to re-brand rice into a more cosmopolitan food commodity. This essay explores the factors that shaped when and how rice became a dietary staple for Americans across race and region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All types of consumer expenditures ultimately vie for the same pool of limited resources—the consumer's discretionary income. Consequently, consumers' spending in a particular industry can be better understood in relation to their expenditures in others. Although marketers may believe that they are operating in distinct and unrelated industries, it is important to understand how consumers, with a given budget, make trade-offs between meeting different consumption needs. For example, how much would escalating gas prices affect consumer spending on food and apparel? Which industries would gain most in terms of extra consumer spending as a result of a tax rebate? Answers to these questions are also important from a public policy standpoint because they provide insights into how consumer welfare would be affected as consumers reallocate their consumption budget in response to environmental changes. This study proposes a structural demand model to approximate the household budget allocation decision, in which consumers are assumed to allocate a given budget across a full spectrum of consumption categories to maximize an underlying utility function. The authors illustrate the model using Consumer Expenditure Survey data from the United States, covering 31 consumption categories over 22 years. The calibrated model makes it possible to draw direct inferences about the trade-offs individual households make when they face budget constraints and how their relative preferences for different consumption categories vary across life stages and income levels. The study also demonstrates how the proposed model can be used in policy simulations to quantify the potential impacts on consumption patterns due to shifts in prices or discretionary income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the prediction of the permanent income hypothesis (PIH) that news about future income induce a revision in consumption equal to the revision in permanent income. We use time-series data from 48 contiguous U.S. states to perform the test. The empirical results provide some support for the PIH across states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is the largest energy consumer in the world. Identifying China's energy consumption pathways at sectoral levels provides critical information to support energy efficiency improvements, reduce total energy consumption and address issues of access and equity. This study evaluates China's energy footprint based on multi-regional input-output analysis at sectoral level from 1995 to 2009. The foreign and domestic dependency of China's energy footprint is investigated at sectoral level as well. The main results show that the percentage of China's energy footprint to the total global energy footprint increased from 7.6% in 1995 to 15.2% in 2009. China's sector c18, which relates to the sale of Motor Vehicles, Motorcycles and fuel, is the top energy consuming sector over the study period. At a sub-sectoral level, the dominant energy pathway contributing to c18 is China's sub-sectoral c17 (Energy supply sector); c8 (Energy refined sector); c12 (Metal sector); c11 (Other Non-Metallic Mineral sector); Korea's sectoral c9 (Chemical sector) and c8 (Energy refined sector) and Russia's sectoral c17 (Energy supply sector). In terms of dependency on other countries, China's energy footprint network depends most on Russia, USA and Germany. • China's energy footprint at a sectoral level from 1995 to 2009 was assessed. • A multi-regional input-output analysis method was applied. • China's energy footprint increased from 7.6% in 1995 to 15.2% in 2009. • China's energy footprint network depends most on Russia, USA and Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Colombia, road transportation consumes 44% of the overall energy available. This sector is considered a great consumer of oil-based-fuels and the least efficient productive sector. It was identified that technological and operational strategies like eco-driving enhance the performance of vehicles. A set of methodologies were implemented based on the measurement of energy consumption and emissions of vehicles, from which theoretical and experimental models have been performed. Besides, the evaluation of eco-driving as an energy efficiency strategy for Light Duty Vehicles in Colombia was carried out by conducting tests in a chassis dynamometer, based on the procedures described by the CFR 40 of the United States of America and COPANT. In addition, fuel consumption of a Light Duty Vehicle was measured and it was possible to identify the potential of eco driving as it was achieved an increase up to 20% in the energy performance of the vehicle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine wellness as a means of self-branding. The phenomenon is addressed through the introduction of a new concept – wellness branding – and by identifying those wellness practices that are currently most valued. Design/methodology/approach: A series of focus group interviews were conducted in the USA and Finland. Altogether, 12 discussion sessions (N = 57) were carried out, 6 in each country. Findings: Both wellness and self-branding represent current forms of identity and lifestyle construction and self-promotion. Moreover, they represent an entrepreneurial view of the self, which emphasizes self-governance. The findings indicate that wellness has moved beyond the merely physical dimension, to significantly involve emotional/mental, spiritual, social and intellectual aspects. This further strengthens the transformational nature of wellness and the increasing need for balancing one's life in order to reach one's optimal self. The logic of wellness branding involves the creation of one's optimal, balanced self while communicating it to others. Research limitations/implications: This paper makes insightful contributions to the branding literature by broadening the scope of self-branding to a new and timely context. The paper further adds to the consumer research literature by addressing wellness as a form of transformative consumption and an essential part of the current self-care culture. Originality/value: To the authors' knowledge, this paper is the first to discuss self-branding in the context of wellness, introducing a new concept of wellness branding, thus offering a novel area for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kurt Andersen's Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire, stretches from the thoughts of Martin Luther in the sixteenth century to the beginning of Donald Trump's presidency. In between these two periods, the book explores major moments in several decades of American history, beginning in the seventeenth century, to reveal the energies, forces, and inventions that brought America to its current disposition, wherein fact and fiction blend to such an extent that one cannot be distinguished from the other. With the invention and rise of the individual and individualism, a shared tradition was lost in favor of each person creating his or her own version of reality, one that pleases, comforts, and reinforces the individual's beliefs, no matter how outrageous, harmful, and dangerous. The dramatic change in America's sense of itself is accelerating in its metamorphosis into a further agglomerate of what Christopher Lasch wrote of in 1978: a culture of narcissism. Fantasyland is the domain of narcissism writ large. Yet Andersen's final image is one of hope: that we have peaked in the land of fantasy and can begin to recover a shared sense of values not predicated on individualism or private perspectives but on the earlier idea of "the common good." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey for 2010 through 2016 to compare trends in insurance coverage and consumption for household that did and did not expand eligibility for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act in 2014. Consistent with earlier studies, we find significant increases in Medicaid coverage in expansion relative to non-expansion states, and we find small but significant reductions in quarterly health spending of about $60, or just less than one-quarter of the baseline value. We find no significant change in non-health consumption as a result of Medicaid expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States' postwar period has seen an increase in aggregate market hours worked, a decline in home production hours, and an increase in the consumption to output ratio. A multisector growth model that allows for an increase in total factor productivity in the market sector relative to the home sector can account for these phenomena. Households shift hours to the more productive market sector and purchase measured market goods in favor of unmeasured home goods. This channel accounts for a quarter of the increase in the consumption to output ratio observed in the data from 1950 to 2007. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I examine the material and everyday practices of a community of thrift-shoppers at the Goodwill Bins. Their practices reveal that shopping in these cutthroat environments is anything but leisurely. By attending to how these spaces are utilised as resources for independent ventures in the informal economy, I show how the occupation of reselling blurs the lines between consumption and production, and shopping and work. I argue that the thrift store can be viewed as a microcosm of the broader shifts occurring in the economy and the latest capitalist reorganisation of work into non-standard and precarious forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an effort to improve diet and health outcomes, policymakers have increasingly turned to supply-side subsidies aimed at encouraging investment by supermarkets and other food retailers in low-income areas. This article examines whether the US federal government’s New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) has affected the entry of retail food establishments, and in turn food shopping and purchasing patterns, in low-income communities. To identify the impacts of the programme, we take advantage of a discontinuity in NMTC funding generated by the formula used to determine the eligibility of census tracts for investment under the programme. We find that the NMTC Program has had modest, but positive impacts on supermarket entry in low-income communities. Based on household-level scanner data, there are no detectable effects on households’ food purchasing patterns in affected neighbourhoods, at least in the short run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Obesity has a serious impact on public health. Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are implicated in the obesity epidemic. Regulation has been suggested as one approach to limit consumption. Objective: The aim of this study was to synthesize existing evidence related to the impact of taxes on the consumption, purchase, or sales of SSBs. Design: A systematic review was conducted by using MEDLINE through PubMed (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed), the Cochrane Library (http://www.cochranelibrary.com/), theWeb of Science (https://login.webofknowledge.com/error/Error? PathInfo=%2F&Error=IPError), and Scopus (https://www. scopus.com/search/form.uri?display=basic) in the period 2011–2017 for studies that analyzed the impact of fiscal regulatory measures on the consumption, purchase, or sales of SSBs. The quality of evidence was assessed according to the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) and the TREND (Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Nonrandomized Designs) statements. Results: Of the 17 studies, 5 (29.4%) evaluated the impact of a tax on SSBs in naturalistic experiments by county or city in the United States and in Mexico. Findings indicated that purchases or sales of SSBs decreased significantly with taxation amounts of 8% (Berkeley, CA) and 10% (Mexico). One study found no effect on sales of SSBs in 2 states that enacted a 5.5% tax on sodas. Twelve (70.6%) studies were based on virtual or experimental conditions evaluating either purchasing behavior or sales (6 studies; 50.0%) or behavioral intent (6 studies; 50.0%), resulting in a decrease in either purchasing behavior or sales or intent behavior with heterogeneity according to the tax rate. Conclusions: Taxation significantly influences planned purchases and increases the probability of the purchase of healthy beverages. SSB taxes have the potential to reduce calorie and sugar intake, but further research is needed to evaluate effects on diet quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the credit card debt puzzle using a generalization of the buffer‐stock consumption model with long‐term revolving debt contracts. Closely resembling actual US credit card law, we assume that card issuers can always deny their cardholders access to new debt, but that they cannot demand immediate repayment of the outstanding balance. Hereby, current debt can potentially soften a household's borrowing constraint in future periods, and thus provides extra liquidity. We show that for some intermediate values of liquid net worth it is indeed optimal for households to simultaneously hold positive gross debt and positive gross assets even though the interest rate on the debt is much higher than the return rate on the assets. Including a risk of being excluded from new borrowing which is positively correlated with unemployment, we are able to simultaneously explain a substantial share of the observed borrower‐saver group and match a broad range of percentiles from the empirical distributions of credit card debt and liquid assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing stress on the global water supply necessitates the measurement of water consumption as a sustainability metric to evaluate energy production, including the production of transportation fuels (gasoline, diesel, jet fuel) at petroleum refineries. This study estimated refinery water consumption for petroleum fuels by considering three typical refinery configurations (cracking, light coking, and heavy coking) that process different crude qualities (e.g., American Petroleum Institute Gravity (API) gravity and sulfur content). The results showed that refinery water consumption was 0.34, 0.44, and 0.47 bbl water/bbl crude (L water/L crude) for cracking, light coking, and heavy coking configurations, respectively. The water consumption for a specific refinery product was estimated using an energy allocation approach at the process unit level. The results indicated that gasoline production consumes the largest amount of water, 0.60–0.71 gal water/gal gasoline (0.60–0.71 L water/L gasoline), due to the energy-intensive (and thus water-intensive) processing of gasoline components (mainly sourced from alkylation, reformer, and fluid catalytic cracking units). In contrast, jet fuel production consumes the least water, 0.09 gal water/gal jet fuel, for all three refinery configurations, because it is sourced directly from the crude distillation unit with minimal post-treating. The consumption of diesel is most sensitive to refinery configuration with 0.20, 0.30, and 0.40 gal water/gal diesel (L water/L diesel) for cracking, light coking and heavy coking configurations, respectively. This is mainly because as configuration complexity increases to process heavier and sourer crudes, a sizable burden of hydrogen production from steam methane reforming unit is allocated to diesel fuel production (including diesel sulfur removal). The trend of water consumption associated with these refinery products is consistent with the energy consumption for their production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the role of race and ethnicity in the self-reported strength of the social ties of young adolescents on Facebook. Based on the social diversification hypothesis, which argues that in multicultural societies, race and ethnicity are key factors that shape the nature of associations, we examine whether there are ethnic and racial differences in the size and strength of the ties of adolescent Facebook users and the role of the strength of these ties in several positive outcomes. Using data from the U.S. Teens’ Social Media and Privacy Survey conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life project among 802 teens ages 12-17, we found no differences in the total number of ties that adolescents from different ethnic and racial groups reported. However, African Americans reported significantly higher number of weak ties, while White Americans had a significantly higher number of strong ties. The results are consistent with the social diversification hypothesis. The implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the controversy sparked by the 2012 California foie gras ban as springboard for conceptualizing French and Francophone objections to US cultural imperialism and the so-called "obesity epidemic." In particular, it explores the controversial practice of forcefeeding or gavage as a way of examining how ideas about feeding and fattening animalize fat people in subtle ways. It argues that, as a form of consumption involving asymmetrical (and often sexualized, racialized and classed) relations of power, the logic of gavage invokes a plurality of practices for different ends -- interpersonal as well as intrapersonal, cultural and cross-cultural -- that frame the collective body of "America" as a fattened, but also fattening, "beast." By probing the complex and unstable network of relationships that gavage signifies and enacts, it shows that animalized representations of the fat American pivots on issues germane to many discussions of "obesity" in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the unique positionality of abolitionist boycott literature, situated within the sentimental trends of antebellum literature while employing the sensationalist language of consumer interaction with morally compromised goods. Boycott literature ultimately introduced into the literary landscape a complicated view of what readers and writers increasingly saw as a suspect "free" market. Writers such as Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Elizabeth Margaret Chandler, and John Greenleaf Whittier imagined a world of goods haunted by the touch of enslaved laborers--goods that in turn haunted consumers. By parsing out the language of abolitionist boycott literature alongside its historical and material cultural moment, this essay argues that such literature posits a very literal and as yet unaccounted-for version of material relations that collapses the boundaries between consumer and producer, self and other, in ways that have horrific, haunting implications for market society, then and now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the foreign policy of Barack Obama and the basic elements and contours of what can be described as a putative "Obama Doctrine". It argues that, while never precisely stated and outlined, this doctrine constituted an attempt to come to terms with the final manifestation of some ingrained and, after the 2008 global economic crisis, inescapable contradictions and flaws of the model of hegemony the United States had built and projected since the 1970s. To address this novel situation, and the multiple arcs of crisis the U.S. was facing, a radical strategic, diplomatic and discursive shift was needed. Cognisant of it, Obama pursued this change, although not always consistently or successfully, achieving results that appear all the more remarkable when compared with the foreign policies of his predecessor and, after almost two years in office, his successor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the facilitation, consent and consumption of state violence, as an aspect of the state’s hegemonic control in the current stage of neoliberal capitalism. We suggest that the commoditized symbols of state violence are a part of everyday life for millions within the United States and are embedded within ideologies of nationalism–national security, supported and reinforced through consumerism. The consumption (figuratively and literally) within the confines of neoliberalism is disconnected from the actual course of state violence, facilitating their own pacification while giving consent to hegemonic control. In this sense, the population’s consumption becomes more than pacification and consent, but rather an active constituent in the production and reproduction of state violence: making it the accepted and banal violence of the spectacle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Food waste studies have been used for more than 40 years to assess nutrient intake, dietary quality, menu performance, food acceptability, cost, and effectiveness of nutrition education in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Objective Describe methods used to measure food waste and respective results in the NSLP across time. Methods A systematic review using PubMed, Science Direct, Informaworld, and Institute of Scientific Information Web of Knowledge was conducted using the following search terms: waste, school lunch, plate waste, food waste, kitchen, half method, quarter method, weight, and photography . Studies published through June 2015 were included. The systematic review followed preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses recommendations. Results The final review included 53 articles. Food waste methodologies included in-person visual estimation (n=11), digital photography (n=11), direct weighing (n=23), and a combination of in-person visual estimation, digital photography, and/or direct weighing (n=8). A majority of studies used a pre–post intervention or cross-sectional design. Fruits and vegetables were the most researched dietary component on the lunch tray and yielded the greatest amount of waste across studies. Conclusions Food waste is commonly assessed in the NSLP, but the methods are diverse and reporting metrics are variable. Future research should focus on establishing more uniform metrics to measure and report on food waste in the NSLP. Consistent food waste measurement methods will allow for better comparisons between studies. Such measures may facilitate better decision making about NSLP practices, programs, and policies that influence student consumption patterns across settings and interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban American dining habits underwent extraordinary transformation in the antebellum period. Most importantly, the new trend of dining out in restaurants steadily infringed upon the domestic circle as more and more Americans from all socioeconomic backgrounds began to rely on restaurants to feed them. This paper examines the anxieties this new trend inspired among urban middle-class Americans, who had begun to champion the domestic ritual of the family meal as a salve for the ills of a consumer-oriented society. While mid-century domestic advisors ultimately failed to halt the trend of dining out the effects of their jeremiads against restaurants can still be seen today in the romanticized, therapeutic image the family meal continues to hold in America and the often-repeated disparagements against the modern commercial food industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop and test the idea that public appreciation for authentic lowbrow culture affords an effective way for certain elites to address feelings of authenticity-insecurity arising from "high status denigration" (Hahl and Zuckerman 2014). This argument, which builds on recent sociological research on the "search for authenticity" (e.g., Grazian 2005) and on Bourdieu's (1993) notion of artistic "disinterestedness," is validated through experiments with U.S. subjects in the context of "outsider" art (Fine 2004). The first study demonstrates that preference for lowbrow culture perceived to be authentic is higher when individuals feel insecure in their authenticity because they attained status in a context where extrinsic incentives are salient. The second study demonstrates that audiences perceive the members of erstwhile denigrated high-status categories to be more authentic if they consume lowbrow culture, but only if the cultural producer is perceived as authentic. We conclude by noting how this "authenticity-by-appreciation" effect might be complementary to distinction-seeking as a motivation for elite cultural omnivorousness, and we draw broader implications for when and why particular forms of culture are in demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Class is an issue rarely foregrounded in advertising criticism, although the emphasis on consumption and commodity-defined images of the good life frequently makes advertising a class-oriented discourse. The degree and manner that advertising contains overt symbols and discussions of class may be influenced by the particular era in which a campaign appears. This article argues that several "postrecession" U.S. campaigns including for Buick, Allstate, and DirecTV make class comparisons explicit, as seen in ''class shaming'' strategies such as a ridicule of service workers, presenting the wealthy as victimized by the working class, and ''lower-classface'' performances that contrast class-based lifestyles. In such ads, representations of the working class are equated with losers, incompetents, and non-brand users in the ads, while affluent users and opulent lifestyles are celebrated. Final reflections focus on the ideological implications of more obvious depictions of class in current and future advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nostalgia has been transformed by the consumer market. With the emergence of ephemeral novelty goods – popular music, TV serials, kitsch, automobiles, and especially playthings – nostalgia has become less about identification with past communities, ideologies, or regimes than associated with fast-changing consumer goods, especially those encountered in childhood and youth. Reappropriating those goods later in life in nostalgic collecting has become a big business, producing narrow cohorts of consumers sharing common consumer memories. I explore this phenomenon through the history of collecting toys, dolls, and Disney collectibles in the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Economic Annals-XXI / Ekonomìčnij Časopis-XXI is the property of Institute of Society Transformation and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With the increasing adoption of plant-based diets in the United States, more and more individuals replace cow milk with plant-based milk alternatives. Soy milk is a commonly used cow milk substitute, which is characterized by a higher content of polyunsaturated fatty acids and fibers. Despite these favorable characteristics, little is known about the current prevalence of soy milk consumption the United States. We used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) to assess soy milk usage in the United States and identified potential predictors for its consumption in the US general population. The proportion of individuals reporting soy milk consumption in the NHANES 2015-2016 cycle was 2%, and 1.54% in the NHANES 2017-2020 cycle. Non-Hispanic Asian and Black ethnicities (as well as other Hispanic and Mexican American ethnicities in the 2017-2020 cycle) significantly increased the odds for soy milk consumption. While a college degree and weekly moderate physical activity were associated with significantly higher odds for consuming soy milk (OR: 2.21 and 2.36, respectively), sex was not an important predictor. In light of the putative health benefits of soy milk and its more favorable environmental impact as compared to cow milk, future investigations should attempt to identify strategies that may help promote its consumption in selected populations.

Global debt will keep growth subdued over the next decade. Falling work force will move labor intensive manufacturing out of China and into South Asia. Investment, not consumption, will be the main driver of growth, which primarily will take place in Asia and probably also Africa. New institutional frameworks such as AIIB emerge, but they will operate inside the existing global order. Falling albeit still tangible Chinese saving combined with fading interest for US treasury bonds will pose an awkward dilemma for US monetary policy. Under such circumstances current savings-investment balances will continue to rule the global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world of restaurants-as organizations as well as indicators of social status and cultural tastes-has, thus far in the 21st century, become especially dynamic in the United States and elsewhere. Social scientists have begun to engage seriously with issues concerning germane shifts in the culinary profession and the emergence of new forms of cooking and dining out. For sociologists interested in consumption, organizations, and creative work, this offers a number of timely topics, such as restaurants' financing strategies and ownership models, the institutionalization of new culinary trends, the expanding roles of chefs, and the labor practices of upmarket restaurants. This article synthesizes recent scholarship on the modern culinary field in the United States, specifically examining three interrelated themes: tensions between concurrent demands for creativity and financial returns, new ways of catering to consumer desires for authenticity, and issues of inequality in professional kitchens. It concludes by discussing several issues facing the future of dining out, as forecast by field leaders themselves, which offer further opportunities for burgeoning sociological and organizational inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iodine deficiency is a public health problem in the US, with the iodine status of women of reproductive age decreasing in recent years. This may be attributable to voluntary salt iodization in the US. Magazines, a common source of recipes and nutritional information, may influence salt use and iodine intake. The aim of this study is to assess whether the magazines with the highest circulation in the US include recipes that contain salt and, if so, whether they specify "iodized salt" in the recipes. Recipes in eight of the top ten magazines by circulation in the US were examined. Standardized information was collected on the presence and type of salt in recipes in the last 12 issues reviewed per magazine. About 73% of the 102 issues reviewed contained recipes. A total of 1026 recipes were surveyed for salt; 48% of the recipes listed salt as an ingredient. None of the 493 recipes containing salt specified iodized salt as the type of salt to be used. About half of the recipes in the last 12 issues of popular magazines published in the US included salt in the ingredient list; however, none recommend the use of iodized salt. There is potential for editorial changes among magazines to call for iodized salt in recipes, which may further prevent iodine deficiency in the US.

With an increasing proliferation of consumer practices within the United States university system, one crucial question often neglected is how spaces of consumption are produced. French Marxist philosopher and sociologist, Henri Lefebvre, provided a nuanced and innovative approach to examining the phenomenon of spatial production in his landmark work,The Production of Space.After reviewing the increase in consumerism within universities, Lefebvre’s framework will be employed to discuss how consumer spaces are produced within higher education and the implications of such spatial production for student populations. Materially, this mode of production expands and dematerializes a variety of spaces within the university to facilitate increased student spending and educational commodification. Ideologically, policies and practices become limited to a largely consumerist perspective. New spaces that foster critical pedagogy and praxis are needed within the university, lest the line between learning and consumption become blurred beyond recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Konsumpcja i Rozwój is the property of Institute for Market, Consumption & Business Cycles Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)