A microeconometric analysis of household consumption expenditure determinants for both rural and urban areas in Turkey

Abstract

This paper investigates the determinants of household consumption expenditure in Turkey. It also estimates the models for both rural and urban areas separately to examine the regional gaps for the entire distribution of consumption expenditure. Quantile regression is used to examine the correlates of consumption at different point on the distribution for both rural and urban areas. The findings show that the age increases the consumption expenditures in general and urban estimations, while it decreases the consumption expenditures in the rural estimations. In rural estimates, only age, income, marital status, insurance and the size of the household are obtained significantly. In the estimates through all observations regardless of rural-urban distinction, the lower value of consumption expenditures of men than the consumption expenditures of women are rather close to the values obtained for the same variables in the urban estimates.