A Household-Based, Nonparametric Test of Demand Theory

Abstract

A nonparametric test of demand theory, determining the consistency of price-expenditure data with the generalized axiom of revealed preference, is applied to household macroeconomic data for the first time. The fraction of consumption bundle comparisons that violate the generalized axiom of revealed preference is proposed as a summary statistic to indicate the consistency of a data set with revealed preference axioms. This violation rate is calculated among consumption pairs with similar expenditures to increase the power of the test. The results suggest that similar households' consumption choices and budget constraints are generally consistent with the joint hypotheses of optimizing behavior and common preferences. Copyright 1995 by MIT Press.