Demand Analysis

This thesis examines in depth how the rights to independent living of persons with disabilities in Türkiye are shaped within the framework of socio-cultural perceptions and social demands. The sample group consists of a total of 10 persons with physical disabilities who were and were not included in the Personal Assistance as a Key Tool for Independent Living of Persons with Disabilities (PAKT) project, which was implemented by the Association of Women with Disabilities with the support of the European Union and in partnership with the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL). This thesis examines how persons with disabilities in Türkiye define the concepts of independent living and personal assistance, how the concept of social inclusion is perceived in the socio-cultural context, and how economic conditions affect these demands. The findings reveal the challenges faced by persons with disabilities in society and the socio-cultural underpinnings of these challenges, document serious gaps and existing problems in disability rights and policies, and provide a basis for developing more effective policies for the social inclusion and independent living rights of persons with disabilities. In addition, this thesis makes an important contribution to the literature by providing the first academic examination of the right to independent living of persons with disabilities in Türkiye.

Keywords: Disability, Culture, Demand, Independent living, Disability rights

Decision making and knowledge intensive work requires information supply tailored to the need of the user in question. Context management is considered a key contribution to this objective. The paper investigates context definitions and representations from two different viewpoints: information demand analysis and decision support. Discussion and comparison of these viewpoints includes enterprise models as a source for information demand analysis, ontologies and object-oriented constraint networks as representation technique and correspondences between information demand context and context in decision support.

There is a trend towards reducing heating and cooling requirements of buildings by using high levels of insulation, minimizing thermal bridging, and ensuring excellent air tightness, together with the operation of efficient mechanical ventilation heat recovery (MVHR) systems. In temperate climates, this approach has already raised questions about potential risks of over-specifying some construction elements and installations. This study argues that in maritime climates, appropriate building design with occupant controlled natural ...

In the context of the Canadian Forces Health and Fitness Strategy and as a preliminary step in the development of fitness standards which take into account the specific demands of the Navy, Army and Air force, detailed task analyses were conducted in each of these environments. The objective of this phase of research was to identify common, critical, physically demanding tasks in each of the environments. METHODS: Data collection lasted approx 18 months and methods included (1) task analysis surveys; (2) on-site measurements of loads, distances, and heights; (3) focus groups and interviews with subject matter experts; (4) job shadowing; (5) heart rate monitoring during tasks; and (6) narrative descriptions of daily tasks, military exercises and operations. Subject matter experts, the military chain of command and project management team members were called on to reconcile the information yielded by the various methods within each environment in order to obtain consensus on the nature of the common, critical and physically demanding tasks.

27 2.1 Life history 28 2.2 Diet and foraging behaviour 29 2.3 Assessing seal fisheries interactions .33 CHAPTER 3: METHODS 34 3.1 SMRU captive facility .35 3.2 Animals 35 3.3 Respirometry 3.3.1 Open flow respirometry system 38 3.3.2 Calculation of 02 consumption 42 3.4 Measurement ofbehaviour .43 3.5 Measurement of body composition 45 CHAPTER 4: VARIATIONS IN RESTING METABOLIC RATE 48 4.1 Introduction 19. 4.1.1 Conditions of 'resting' 4.

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A number of studies have explored the empirical relevance of the Engel's law by using household budget surveys in developed and developing countries. This article presents an empirical evidence on the applicability of the Engel's law in Tanzania. The analysis is based on a micro-survey data of peasant households in Northern Tanzania. Both statistical and econometric analyses demonstrate that household size and income significantly and positively determine expenditure on food and some other consumption items, depending on the area of the study. The age of the household is established to have no significant influence on expenditure on food, but only on other consumption items investigated. The study has also established that education has no significant influence on any expenditure items of the sampled households.

En el presente artículo se pretende realizar una revisión de la literatura de las redes sociales en el ámbito turístico, conocer el nivel de implantación de las redes sociales en las Webs de las oficinas de información turística de las Comunidades Autónomas españolas y analizar las estrategias que llevan a cabo como respuesta al creciente grado de proliferación de dichas redes y a la competitividad a la que se enfrentan los destinos turísticos. El objetivo de este estudio es demostrar la relación y el interés de este tipo de análisis para adaptar la gestión de las redes sociales a las demandas de la sociedad actual y para mejorar y adecuar las estrategias de la promoción de los destinos turísticos.

This paper has its primary focus on the analysis of perceptions and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for composted municipal solid and faecal waste among urban and peri-urban farmers and other potential compost users in Ghana. Participatory rural appraisal and contingent valuation methods (CVM) were used for the demand analysis. Most respondents were clear and firm in their responses to the principal question about WTP for compost, as well as in giving their views and perceptions about issues involved in demand for compost. The probit analysis proved valuable in highlighting variables, which explain variations in the WTP. The WTP analysis allowed the quantification of the compost demand under different scenarios of subsidized and non-subsidized compost production, with due allowance for a local reference price to cover compost station operating costs. The analysis revealed that the effective demand for compost for agricultural purposes is marginal and limited by farmersÕ transport costs. Only through the additional consideration of the demand of the construction sector can about 25% of the organic waste produced in GhanaÕs capital, Accra, be transformed and utilized. Public subsidies appear necessary and could be generated through savings in transport and disposal. Without subsidies, the challenge for an increased agricultural use is how to produce a low-cost but nutrient-rich compost, which can compete with abundant and cheap poultry manure and still achieve the price to maintain a compost station. The experience in Ghana shows that this is hardly possible except through private-public partnerships.

Pada pertengahan masa pandemi COVID-19, di banyak negara terjadi kenaikan permintaan barang-barang kebutuhan esensial untuk menunjang kehidupan dan menjaga kesehatan. Namun ada satu barang yang sebenarnya bukan termasuk komoditi esensial yang turut mengalami lonjakan permintaan yang signifikan, yakni toilet paper/tisu toilet. Seperti nampak pada Grafik 1, terjadi kenaikan besar tingkat pertumbuhan penjualan toilet paper di US pada akhir Q1 2020. Kombinasi antara uncertainty, ketakutan terhadap virus, kebijakan lock-down dan social distancing mengakibatkan tersebarnya fenomena unik panic buying dan stockpiling (Loxton, et al, 2020). Meskipun dilatarbelakangi oleh chaos dan kepanikan, tapi penulis berpendapat bahwa fenomena ini memiliki efek positif serta dapat menjadi pelajaran berharga bagi produsen, konsumen dan regulator. What gives?

En el presente artículo se pretende realizar una revisión de la literatura de las redes sociales en el ámbito turístico, conocer el nivel de implantación de las redes sociales en las Webs de las oficinas de información turística de las Comunidades Autónomas españolas y analizar las estrategias que llevan a cabo como respuesta al creciente grado de proliferación de dichas redes y a la competitividad a la que se enfrentan los destinos turísticos. El objetivo de este estudio es demostrar la relación y el interés de este tipo de análisis para adaptar la gestión de las redes sociales a las demandas de la sociedad actual y para mejorar y adecuar las estrategias de la promoción de los destinos turísticos.

Fruits and vegetables form the basis of a nutritional diet for the population. In addition to the basic determinants, such as market prices and consumer income, other factors influence consumer demand. This paper aims to investigate how the age and gender of consumers influence the demand for fruit and vegetables in different European countries. In this paper, the demand for fruit and vegetables is understood through the population's preferences for fruit and vegetable consumption, i.e., the proportion of the population that prefers to consume fruit and vegetables five or more times a day. The paper uses data from Eurostat. Factor, cluster and correlation analyses were performed using the SPSS software. The results of the analyses showed that the gender significantly determines the demand for fruit and vegetables in favour of women. Regarding the effect of age, this determinant was positively correlated with the preference for 5FV consumption in most countries. Potential interventions to promote fruit and vegetable consumption should mainly target men aged 15-19 and 75+ in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Austria, Slovenia and Sweden, men aged 35-44 and 75+ in Croatia, Italy, Poland and Romania and women aged 15-19 and 55+ in Bulgaria and Romania, where their preference for 5FV was the lowest.

Consumption of fruits is important for the health of Slovak Republic (SR) inhabitants, as they positively affect the overall health of the people who consume them. The article aims to identify the position of fruits in the consumption basket of the SR inhabitants. relations in the fruit market. The goal of our further research is to find substitution and complementary relationships based on the purchased quantity and price of individual fruits. The results of the analysis pointed out that the share of individual types of fruit in the consumption basket of the SR inhabitants is very subject to substitution and complementary relations.

En el presente artículo se pretende realizar una revisión de la literatura de las redes sociales en el ámbito turístico, conocer el nivel de implantación de las redes sociales en las Webs de las oficinas de información turística de las Comunidades Autónomas españolas y analizar las estrategias que llevan a cabo como respuesta al creciente grado de proliferación de dichas redes y a la competitividad a la que se enfrentan los destinos turísticos. El objetivo de este estudio es demostrar la relación y el interés de este tipo de análisis para adaptar la gestión de las redes sociales a las demandas de la sociedad actual y para mejorar y adecuar las estrategias de la promoción de los destinos turísticos.

The contribution of vaccination to global health, especially in low-middle-income countries is one of the achievements in global governance of modern medicine, averting 2-3 million child deaths annually. However, in Nigeria, vaccine-preventable-diseases still account for one-in-eight child deaths before their fifth-year birthday. Nigeria is one of the ten countries where 4.3 million children under five are without complete immunization. Therefore, the goal of this contribution is to shed light on the reasons to set a foundation for future interventions. To conduct focus groups, a simplified quota sampling approach was used to select mothers of children 0-12 months old in four geographical clusters of Nigeria. An interview guide developed from the 5C psychological antecedence model was used (assessing confidence, complacency, calculation, constraints, collective responsibility); two concepts were added that had proved meaningful in previous work (religion and masculinity). The data were analyzed using a metaaggregation approach. The sample was relatively positive toward vaccination. Still, mothers reported low trust in vaccine safety and the healthcare system (confidence). Yet, they had great interest in seeking additional information (calculation), difficulties in prioritizing vaccination over other equally competing priorities (constraints) and were aware that vaccination translates into overall community wellbeing (collective responsibility). They had a bias toward God as ultimate giver of good health (religion) and their husbands played a dominant role in vaccination decision-making (masculinity). Mothers perceived their children vulnerable to disease outbreaks, hence, motivated vaccination (complacency). The study provided a useful qualitative tool for understanding mothers' vaccination decision-making in low resources settings.

Background Vaccination remains the most effective means of reducing the burden of infectious disease among children. It is estimated to prevent between two to three million child deaths annually. However, despite being a successful intervention, basic vaccination coverage remains below the target. About 20 million infants are either under or not fully vaccinated, most of whom are in Sub-Saharan Africa region. In Kenya, the coverage is even lower at 83% than the global average of 86%. The objective of this study is to explore the factors that contribute to low demand or vaccine hesitancy for childhood and adolescent vaccines in Kenya. Methods The study used qualitative research design. Key Informant Interviews (KII) was used to obtain information from national and county-level key stakeholders. In-depth Interviews (IDI) was done to collect opinions of caregivers of children 0-23 months and adolescent girls eligible for immunization, and Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine respectively. The data was collected at the national level and counties such as Kilifi, Turkana, Nairobi and Kitui. The data was analyzed using thematic content approach. A total of 41 national and county-level immunization officials and caregivers formed the sample. Results Insufficient knowledge about vaccines, vaccine supply issues, frequent healthcare worker's industrial action, poverty, religious beliefs, inadequate vaccination campaigns, distance to vaccination centers, were identified as factors driving low demand or vaccine hesitancy against routine childhood immunization. While factors driving low uptake of the newly introduced HPV vaccine were reported to include misinformation about the vaccine, rumors that the vaccine is a form of female contraception, the suspicion that the vaccine is free and available only to girls, poor knowledge of cervical cancer and benefits of HPV vaccine. Conclusions Rural community sensitization on both routine childhood immunization and HPV vaccine should be key activities post COVID-19 pandemic. Likewise, the use of mainstream and social media outreaches, and vaccine champions could help reduce vaccine hesitancy. The findings are invaluable for informing design of context-specific interventions by national and county-level immunization stakeholders. Further studies on the relationship between
attitude towards new vaccines and connection to vaccine hesitancy is necessary.

CIRANO Le CIRANO est un organisme sans but lucratif constitué en vertu de la Loi des compagnies du Québec. Le financement de son infrastructure et de ses activités de recherche provient des cotisations de ses organisations-membres, d'une subvention d'infrastructure du Ministère du Développement économique et régional et de la Recherche, de même que des subventions et mandats obtenus par ses équipes de recherche. CIRANO is a private non-profit organization incorporated under the Québec Companies Act. Its infrastructure and research activities are funded through fees paid by member organizations, an infrastructure grant from the Ministère du Développement économique et régional et de la Recherche, and grants and research mandates obtained by its research teams.

Tick infestations can be controlled by immunobiological strategies, however the complexity of the tick-host interface will require a multi-component, multi-effector anti-tick vaccine. High throughput genomic strategies for antigen discovery and the description of the immune correlates of effective anti-tick immune responses compose the dual strategy that we adopt in order to determine the specifications of an anti-tick vaccine. For identification of useful antigens, the transcriptomes of ovaries, hemocytes and salivary glands from rapidly ingurgitating females and of salivary glands from males of Boophilus microplus and Rhipicephalus sanguineus were PCR-amplified and the ESTs of random clones were mass sequenced. So far, more than 2 400 ESTs have been generated for these tissues. Bioinformatic treatment of the ESTs indicated approximately 30% of novelty, depending on the tissue studied, and identified clones with similarities to genes involved in defense, development, hematophagy and escape mechanisms. Many of these constitute candidate antigens. Regarding anti-tick immunity, we exploit the contrasting phenotypes of tick infestations in genetically resistant and susceptible breeds of cattle in order to obtain the correlates of the immune response that effectively interfere with the tick's blood meal. We observe that only tick-resistant animals generate cutaneous delayed type hypersensitivity responses to tick antigens and higher levels of IgG1 and IgG2 antibodies against tick salivary antigens when compared to susceptible bovine hosts. Conversely, tick-susceptible animals generate higher levels of anti-tick saliva IgE when compared to resistant animals, suggesting that this class of antibody does not contribute to resistance against ticks despite the putative noxious role of histamine in the blood feeding process. These results indicate that genomic approaches are efficient for identifying new candidate antigens and that our model of conrasting phenotypes is useful for determining the components of the immune response that have a negative impact on tick infestations.

A simple and sensitive Spectrophotometric method has been used for the determination of iron concentration in Teff flour and its concentration was compared between the different varieties. The method is based on the reaction of iron with o-phenathroline reagent at acidic condition. The absorbance-concentration plot was linear over the range 0.1-2 mg L-1 with correlation coefficient of 0.999. This method was applied successfully for determination of iron in teff flour samples. The result shows that the concentration of iron was the highest for the red teff with a value of 2472.7mg/kg, mixed teff have the next highest iron content with 1440.9 mg/kg, while white teff has the least iron concentration with 881mg/kg. This project work revealed that Red/brown teff, the least expensive form and the least preferred type, has the highest iron content.

This paper explores the role of the Mental Health System (MHS) on the Health System of the Province of Buenos Aires, trying to throw light on its financing structure. The extent of this research is limited to the Province of Buenos Aires, one of the three major provinces of the Republic of Argentine. It could be easily inferred from this that conclusions obtained in this paper cannot be extended to other provinces, neither to the whole country. The Gross Regional Product of the province of Buenos Aires represents around 36% of the GDP of Argentine, which sums up to 280.000 millions of Pesos. As the nominal exchange rate with the Dollar is 1:1, values can be expressed either in Pesos or in Dollars interchangeably. The population of Buenos Aires is 38.4% of the total population of the country, namely 14.214.701 people, the density being 42.2 people per km2.

Poultry supply chains is really complex with many different factors. Economical results in these systems are very unsettled, the color reproductive hens production has a good economic performance but layer duck, Muscovy duck and broiler duck production are loss-making by a large fluctuation of inputs/outputs and epidemic diseases on birds. These are the main reasons influencing the "not sustainable" income in poultry production in this region and in Vietnam today.

Through incomes of 82% of households in rural area are mainly from agricultural production or from between agriculture and off-farm activities. Thanks to selfmade products in most of households, the rural areas are not considerably influent by the present global food and financial crisis. In rural areas, the soya curd (tofu) and self-made products from broiler chickens, vegetables, and the rice play an important role, occupying from 15% to 30% of food expenditures. Pork meat and freshwater fish are usually bought in wet markets.

This paper presents a curriculum design approach for a Masters program in Telecommunications Management based on demand data obtained from surveying the needs of the potential students of the proposed program. Through online surveys disseminated at telecom companies in Jordan, it was possible to measure the demand for such a program and to determine the required program contents and specifications. The curriculum design is based on definition of program outcomes and on using a House of Quality Approach (HOQ) to determine the list of courses required in the program. Surveyed competencies are mapped to a long list of proposed courses in a HOQ in order to determine the importance of each of these courses. A final list of core and elective courses is then developed considering the contribution to program outcomes and the academic standards.

Os perfis típicos de curvas de carga de consumidores e redes constituem informações fundamentais para a determinação das tarifas de uso dos sistemas de distribuição de energia elétrica. Destaca-se que a sinalização horária das tarifas é determinada em grande parte pelos perfis típicos da demanda por eletricidade. Neste artigo é apresentada uma implementação computacional em ambiente R dos métodos K-Means, K-Medoides e Ward, três métodos estatísticos multivariados para análise de agrupamentos, úteis na identificação de perfis típicos da demanda horária por eletricidade, uma etapa crítica do processo de revisão tarifária das distribuidoras de energia elétrica. O presente artigo contribui no sentido de fornecer uma alternativa eficaz e econômica para a construção das tipologias de curvas de carga.

Since the introduction of Cocoa into Nigeria in about 1874, it has grown to become the fourth largest exporter in the world with production level, reaching 385, 000 metric tonnes per annum. In view of Nigeria's significant contribution and export capacity to the world volume, the study examined the competitiveness by assessing her export performance and determinants of cocoa export from Nigeria. The Revealed Comparative Analysis (RCA) and multiple regression were employed as analytical tools using data set from various institutional sources that ranged from 1990 to 2005. The outcome of the analyses revealed that Nigeria has comparative advantage in the exportation of cocoa, based on the RCA and RSCA indices. The OLS estimates showed that world export volume, exchange rate and Nigerian cocoa output were determinants of cocoa export from Nigeria. As such, the study recommended that priority should be accorded to the rehabilitation of old cocoa farms and establishment of new ones as a means of sustaining output levels. [Report and Opinion 2010;2(7):51-].

We formalize the idea that uncertainty is generated by news about future developments in economic conditions which are not perfectly predictable by the agents. Using a simple model of limited information, we show that uncertainty shocks can be obtained as the square of news shocks. We develop a two-step econometric procedure to estimate the effects of news and we find highly nonlinear effects. Large news shocks increase uncertainty. This mitigates the effects of good news and amplifies the effects of bad news in the short run. By contrast, small news shocks reduce uncertainty and increase output in the short run. The Volcker recession and the Great Recession were exacerbated by the uncertainty effects of news.

Within the semiparametric framework introduced by Pendakur (1999) we introduce a new loss function to estimate equivalence scales. This loss function uses all available information from the total expenditures of both the reference and nonreference households and as such it produces more reliable estimates. Using Canadian family expenditure data for 1996 we apply this loss function to obtain equivalence scale estimates for a variety of expenditure share categories such as food, fuel and clothing.

Cross-Price Elasticities of Demand Across 114 Countries United States Department of Agriculture w w w w w. e r s. u s d a. go v o o Find additional information about global food markets and related topics at: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/globalfoodmarkets/ Visit Our Website To Learn More! National Agricultural Library Cataloging Record: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and, where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or a part of an individual's income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.

Elasticities of substitution, often called Armington elasticities, reflect incomplete substitutability because of perceived product characteristics. This study divides the determinants of the Japanese demand for beef imports into two factors: (i) substitution elasticity and (ii) country-of-origin bias, and demonstrate how these measurements are associated with trade policy and food scare events. The Japanese beef industry serves as a case study to evaluate the multifold impact of import liberalisation and a series of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) outbreaks. A time-varying parameter model is used to shed light on the dynamic effects of the import liberalisation and BSE outbreaks on the measurements. The estimation results reveal that the estimated substitutability and country-of-origin bias are very sensitive to the BSE cases, but not to the process of trade liberalisation. The results also confirm that as a result of the BSE outbreaks, the major factor of the Japanese demand for beef imports has changed from relative prices to the country-of-origin effect, thereby emphasising the importance of a traceability system and promotional activities, which would help in the formation of the country-of-origin effect.

Tick infestations can be controlled by immunobiological strategies, however the complexity of the tick-host interface will require a multi-component, multi-effector anti-tick vaccine. High throughput genomic strategies for antigen discovery and the description of the immune correlates of effective anti-tick immune responses compose the dual strategy that we adopt in order to determine the specifications of an anti-tick vaccine. For identification of useful antigens, the transcriptomes of ovaries, hemocytes and salivary glands from rapidly ingurgitating females and of salivary glands from males of Boophilus microplus and Rhipicephalus sanguineus were PCR-amplified and the ESTs of random clones were mass sequenced. So far, more than 2 400 ESTs have been generated for these tissues. Bioinformatic treatment of the ESTs indicated approximately 30% of novelty, depending on the tissue studied, and identified clones with similarities to genes involved in defense, development, hematophagy and escape mechanisms. Many of these constitute candidate antigens. Regarding anti-tick immunity, we exploit the contrasting phenotypes of tick infestations in genetically resistant and susceptible breeds of cattle in order to obtain the correlates of the immune response that effectively interfere with the tick's blood meal. We observe that only tick-resistant animals generate cutaneous delayed type hypersensitivity responses to tick antigens and higher levels of IgG1 and IgG2 antibodies against tick salivary antigens when compared to susceptible bovine hosts. Conversely, tick-susceptible animals generate higher levels of anti-tick saliva IgE when compared to resistant animals, suggesting that this class of antibody does not contribute to resistance against ticks despite the putative noxious role of histamine in the blood feeding process. These results indicate that genomic approaches are efficient for identifying new candidate antigens and that our model of conrasting phenotypes is useful for determining the components of the immune response that have a negative impact on tick infestations.

Resumo: Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) é uma técnica não-paramétrica que permite decompor uma série temporal em sinal e ruído. É uma técnica útil para filtrar dados de séries temporais. Neste artigo, os modelos Box & Jenkins e Holt-Winters são testados com e sem a abordagem SSA para a modelagem de uma série temporal de consumo residencial mensal de energia elétrica de uma concessionária do Rio de Janeiro. Três diferentes metodologias são utilizadas na abordagem SSA: Análise de Componentes principais (ACP), ACP associado com Análise de Cluster e Análise Gráfica dos Vetores Singulares. MAPE, MAE, RMSE e R 2 são estatísticas usadas para testar o poder preditivo dos modelos. Os resultados mostram um maior poder preditivo do modelo quando aplicado a séries filtradas em conjunto com a técnica SSA.

RESUMEN
La evolución reciente de los gastos efectuados por los hogares en
Venezuela da cuenta de cambios en los patrones de consumo, no solo en el tiempo sino entre los diferentes segmentos de hogares clasificados en
función de su condición de pobreza. En este trabajo se describe la evolución del gasto real de los hogares en Venezuela, haciendo énfasis en
los gastos en alimentación. El análisis se realiza con base en los datos recopilados mediante las Encuestas Nacionales de Condiciones de Vida (ENCOVI) para el período 2019-2023.
Adicionalmente, se estima el nivel de pobreza y la desigualdad entre los hogares a partir del comportamiento de las erogaciones de los hogares, áreas en las que es escasa la literatura en Venezuela. Los resultados ponen en evidencia que la relativa reducción en los muy elevados niveles de pobreza identificados en 2019 ha sido acompañada por un significativo incremento en la desigualdad en los niveles de gasto de los hogares,  sobre todo en el gasto en bienes alimenticios. Otro hallazgo relevante es que la mayor desigualdad obedece más a las asimetrías dentro de los diferentes tipos de hogares pobres, sobre todo en el caso de los Pobres Extremos, que a las diferencias entre los hogares pobres y no pobres; es decir, han crecido bastante más las desigualdades intragrupos que las intergrupos. Si bien este es un trabajo cuyo énfasis estuvo más en la descripción que en la explicación de la determinación del gasto, los niveles de pobreza y la desigualdad entre los hogares ponen en evidencia cambios estructurales en la distribución del ingreso y los patrones de consumo en los hogares venezolanos. Estos temas son lo suficientemente relevantes para justificar una mayor profundización analítica en las causas e implicaciones que tienen estos cambios estructurales sobre el crecimiento económico y la estabilidad socio-política, en un país que requiere una transformación profunda en sus fundamentos.
ABSTRACT
The recent evolution of household expenditures in Venezuela shows changes in consumption patterns, not only over time but also among the different segments of households classified according to their poverty
status. This article summarizes the behavior of household consumption spending in Venezuela, with special attention to expenditures for food. The analysis is based on data collected through the Living Conditions Surveys (ENCOVI) for the 2019-2023 period. In addition, the level of poverty and inequality among households is estimated, based on the behavior of household expenditures. These are areas in which there is scarce literature in Venezuela. The results show that a significant increase in inequality in household spending levels has accompanied the relative reduction in the very high levels of poverty identified in 2019, especially in
spending on food goods. Another relevant finding is that the greater inequality is due more to the asymmetries within the different types of poor households, especially with the extremely poor than to the differences between poor and non-poor households. That is to say, intragroup inequalities have grown significantly more than intergroup inequalities. Although this is a paper that emphasizes description rather than an explanation of the determination of expenditure, poverty levels, and inequality among households, it highlights structural changes in income distribution and consumption patterns in Venezuelan households. These issues are sufficiently relevant to justify further analytical deepening of the causes and implications of these structural changes on economic growth and socio-political stability in a country that requires a profound transformation of its fundamentals.

The collective household model is based upon the assumption that decision makers have achieved efficient outcomes. This paradigm, which has become one of the leading approaches in family economics, is seldom, if ever, rejected, raising doubt about its falsifiability. We show that the standard approach to test the collective model may yield misleading inferences. We develop a new test procedure to assess its validity. Our approach extends to households that potentially include more than two decision makers. We provide an informal meta-analysis that suggests that much of the evidence in favor of collective rationality in the empirical literature appears to be inconsistent with our test. We illustrate the latter using data from a survey we have conducted in Burkina Faso. Consumption efficiency within monogamous households is not rejected using the standard testing procedure while it is clearly rejected using our proposed test procedure. Furthermore, our test also rejects consumption efficiency for bigamous households. We conclude that intrahousehold efficiency does yield empirically falsifiable restrictions despite being scarcely rejected in the literature.

We apply a smooth coefficient semiparametric model to a unique high frequency data set to examine the intertemporal pricing of personal computers. Furthermore, we test (a) whether firms charge differential component prices for their top performance personal computers and (b) whether premium firms charge both a premium for all their computers and a premium for their top performance ones. We find nonlinear effects in the pricing of personal computer components. We also find that firms in general do not charge differential prices for the components of their top performance computers. In addition, high quality firms charge higher premia only for their most advanced products. JEL Classifications: D4, C14 * The first author would like to thank SSHRC of Canada for finacial support.We would also like to thank S. Clerides, G. Deltas and D. Genesove for helpful comments and suggestions.