Koncepcja bogactwa gospodarstw domowych. Szacunki dla Polski

The author deals with the concept of household wealth and discusses empirical measures of wealth used in consumption functions in relation to the concept of wealth resulting from the theory of consumer choice. To find a middle ground between different measures of household wealth and empirical data, the author proposes a method for building several time series of net assets in the context of the wealth concept derived from the theory of consumer choice. The measure of household wealth constructed on the basis of the proposed method served as a starting point for constructing narrower measures of household wealth. The widest measure of wealth involved private sector net assets, which is the most adequate approach to explaining private consumption, Zachłod-Jelec says. The author uses charts to show the constructed measures of wealth and net asset values published by the Central Statistical Office (GUS). There is also a graphic analysis of the constructed measures of household wealth and consumption based on GUS data. A preliminary analysis of the constructed measures of household/private sector wealth and consumption – in terms of their use in the structural model of the Polish economy – shows that these measures adequately reflect household consumption, Zachłod-Jelec says. She concludes that the ultimate evaluation of the different measures of household wealth should be based on estimating the consumption function with the use of an appropriate time series.