Análisis del comportamiento del gasto en los hogares ecuatorianos por estrato socioeconómico: aplicación de un sistema casi ideal de demanda (AIDS) 2011-2012

Abstract

This research studies the consumption structure of Ecuadorian households, with the objective of analyzing the levels of sensitivity and substitution of products, especially when the changes in prices of goods and income of individuals are generated, through the analysis of the expenditure elasticity, uncompensated elasticity and compensated elasticity of demand. For the estimation se the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS), that is a complete system of equations and meets the constraints of economic theory. The data for the empirical analysis are cross-sectional data obtained from the Encuesta Nacional de Ingresos y Gastos de los Hogares Urbanos y Rurales (ENIGHUR) 2011-2012, get by INEC. According to the descriptive data, in the Low (B), Middle Low (C-) and Typical Medium (C+) strata, the highest expenditure entry is in Food and non-alcoholic beverages, while the families belonging to the strata Middle High (B) and High (A) allocate the largest proportion of their spending to transportation. The main results of the elasticity’s estimated for the twelve groups of consumption indicate that in the five strata the sensitive is almost homogenous in the demand when changes in the prices of the goods are given. An important finding emerges for the group of rice, cereals, pasta and bread, it presents an inelastic demand in the Middle High and High strata, comparing it with other products whose demand is elastic, also it is evident that the consumption groups related to food are behave the substitutes.