Abstract
It is considered that the increase of net income in accordance with the growth of the national economy and the fluctuation of prices have given a considerable effect upon the consumption structure of households. An analysis is made to see how the relative prices and the net income of city households in postwar Japan have influenced the consumption structure.
For this purpose, the data (1947-1965) on the family income and expenditure collected by the Bureau of Statistics of Japanese Prime Minister's Office are used.
The results obtained are as follows :
As the net income increases, the relative percentage of outlay for food decreases; on the contrary, the sundries become greater. Therefore, a cross phenomenon between food and sundries was seen in 1963.
In future, the rapid rising of the prices of sundries is expected to give a great influence on the household. The gap between nominal and real percentages of outlay is fluctuated by relative prices. In money income quintile groups, the difference among the groups in the percentage of outlay becomes greater as relative prices go up.
