Consumption Patterns in Urban and Rural Areas in the Emerging Mass Consumption Society of China

本研究的目的是考察中国向“大众消费”社会转型时的城乡消费变化。通过定量和定性分析，我们发现中国的“大众消费”社会的发展不同于欧美、日本等发达国家。我们还发现了城乡差距以及收入群体、储蓄行为和消费者认知等消费特征的变化，其中许多是传统社会经济学理论难以解释的。因此，我们的实证分析有助于相关社会经济理论的发展。

The purpose of this study was to examine urban and rural consumption changes when China is transitioning into a "mass consumption" society. We conducted quantitative and qualitative analyses and found that the development of the "mass consumption" society in China is different from that in other advanced countries in Europe, USA and Japan. We also found the gap between urban and rural areas and changing characteristics of consumptions among income groups, saving behavior, and consumer cognition, many of which are difficult to be explained by traditional socioeconomic theories. Thus, our empirical analyses contributed to the development of relevant socioeconomic theories.