How is the new consumer theory developing?

The new consumer theory is different from the traditional consumer theory, which is about consumer behavior. The founders of new consumer theory are modern economists such as Lancaster and Wang Linhai. The new consumer theory is more in line with the real consumer behavior and can explain economic phenomena, which lays a deeper theoretical foundation for modern economics and promotes the development of economics.

Basic viewpoints of new consumer theory

(1) The new consumption theory holds that the process of consuming goods is the process of obtaining certain substances (or services) from goods, and the purpose of consumers buying goods is to obtain these substances (or services), not the goods themselves.

According to the new consumer theory, the process of consumers consuming goods is the process of obtaining a certain substance (or service) from goods. For example, the process of consumers consuming bread is actually the process of obtaining nutrition from bread. Consumers take medicine in order to obtain substances that can cure diseases.

(2) According to the new consumer theory, among the commodities that meet the same demand, consumers choose commodities by comparing their physical and chemical characteristics. The internal logic of consumers' choice between goods that meet the same demand and goods that meet different needs is completely different.

According to the new consumer theory, consumers choose goods that meet the same demand by comparing the physical and chemical characteristics of different goods, and the result of selection is stable. For example, in the case of the same price, consumers choose between different drugs by comparing the efficacy of different drugs, and finally choose the one with good efficacy. The curative effect of drugs is mainly determined by the physical and chemical characteristics of drugs themselves.

According to the new consumer theory, consumers' choice between goods that meet different needs is based on social and subjective judgment, rather than by comparing physical, chemical and other objective characteristics, so the choice result is unstable. For example, between cotton-padded clothes and bread, the same person will choose cotton-padded clothes when it is cold, and bread when he is hungry, and the choice result is unstable.

The new consumer theory also believes that consumers choose goods mainly between goods that meet the same demand. For example, when consumers buy cotton-padded clothes, they must choose a cotton-padded clothes between different products and different types of cotton-padded clothes, not between cotton-padded clothes and bread or cotton-padded clothes and bicycles.

(3) According to the new consumer theory, the standard of consumer choice is the maximum performance (usefulness) price ratio.

According to the new consumer theory, consumers will compare the usefulness (performance) and price of different commodities and choose the one with the greatest usefulness (performance)/price. For example, between bread A and bread B, the nutritional component of bread A is 1 and that of bread B is 2, but the price of bread A is 1 and the nutritional component of bread B is 3. At this time, consumers will choose bread A because bread A is more cost-effective.

(4) The new consumption theory holds that there is a strong substitution relationship between commodities meeting the same demand, which can completely or incompletely substitute each other; There is no strong substitution relationship between commodities that meet different needs.

There is a strong substitution relationship between commodities that meet people's same needs. For example, if sugarcane is only used to extract sucrose, and the cost of extracting sucrose from sugarcane seeds can be ignored, then there is a strong substitution relationship between different sugarcane. Moreover, it can completely replace different sugarcane, and 1 sugarcane containing 600g sucrose can completely replace 2 sugarcane containing 300g sucrose (when people meet the same demand, 1 sugarcane containing 600g sucrose is exactly the same as 2 sugarcane containing 300g sucrose). Different houses meet people's living needs, and there is a strong substitution relationship between different houses. However, although there is a strong substitution relationship between different houses, it is not a complete substitution. Because although different houses meet people's housing needs, there are always differences between different houses, so there are always differences when meeting people's housing needs, so different houses are not completely replaced, but only not completely replaced.

There is only a weak substitution relationship between commodities that meet people's different needs. When income increases, the substitution relationship between different commodities is weak. For example, when consumers' income is very low, there may be a certain substitution relationship between cotton-padded clothes and bread, and the change of cotton-padded clothes price will affect the price of bread. When consumers' income is high, there is almost no substitute relationship between cotton-padded clothes and bread.

(5) The new consumer theory holds that in a perfectly competitive market, the price of goods will be determined by the usefulness (quality) of goods that meet the same demand because of consumers' choice behavior in the same goods. Under certain conditions, it will also lead to the ratio of commodity prices equal to the ratio of commodity usefulness.

For example, the sucrose content of sugarcane A is Ua, the price is Pa, and the sucrose content of sugarcane B is Ub, and the price is Pb. When sugarcane is only used to extract sucrose, the cost of extracting sucrose can be ignored, and the price ratio between sugarcane will be equal to the ratio of sucrose content, that is, the ratio of usefulness (because the usefulness of sugarcane can be expressed by sucrose content at this time).

Use a formula to express the influence of consumer choice, namely:

The difference between consumer theory and traditional consumer theory

Although the new consumer theory has absorbed some viewpoints of the traditional consumer theory, it is fundamentally different from the traditional consumer theory. For example,

1. The new consumer theory holds that the process of consuming goods is the process of obtaining a certain substance (service) from goods, while the traditional consumer theory holds that the process of consumers consuming goods is the process of obtaining utility from goods.

2. According to the new consumer theory, the internal logic of consumers' choice between goods that meet the same demand and goods that meet different needs is different. According to the traditional consumer theory, the internal logic of consumers' choice between goods that meet the same demand is the same as that of goods that meet different needs, both of which are to compare the utility of goods and maximize the utility.

3. The new consumer theory holds that the standard of consumer choice is the maximum performance (usefulness) price ratio, while the traditional consumer theory holds that the standard of consumer choice of goods is the maximum utility.

Compared with the traditional consumption theory, the new consumption theory reveals the law of consumer behavior more deeply and can better explain consumers' daily consumption behavior.

The influence of new consumer theory

The new consumption theory makes up for some major defects of the traditional consumption theory, lays a more solid theoretical foundation for modern economics, enables modern economics to better reveal economic laws and explain economic phenomena, and promotes the development of economics to a new height.

After the birth of the new consumption theory, real estate economics, development economics and other economic branches have also made new and significant development. The core theoretical models of economic branches, such as the basic model of housing price and the basic model of economic development, have also been discovered by economic researchers because of the discovery of new consumption theory.

The Development Course of New Consumer Theory

Lancaster, a famous American economist and professor at Johns Hopkins University, published the New Consumer Theory in the Journal of Political Economy on 1966, and put forward some basic viewpoints of the new consumer theory for the first time, pointing out that the process of consumers consuming goods is a process of collecting certain characteristics of goods.

Wang Linhai, a famous economist in China and editor-in-chief of Asian Economic Review, put forward a systematic view of the new consumption theory on the basis of Lancaster's view, which marked the birth of the new consumption theory.