A Literature Review of Consumption Pattern in China

Consumption pattern has been an important topic in China.This study attempts to summarize the results of a systematic review of the literature on this topic by tracing the history of studies on consumption pattern in China.This study offers an in-depth literature review on consumption pattern,including the definition of consumption pattern,the developing stages of consumption pattern since China' s reform and opening,the elements in research framework of consumption pattern,and construction of specific research of consumption pattern in China.Results of this study show that the development of consumption pattern research has distinctive Chinese characteristics.The study of consumption pattern experienced a process from exploration to development,macro to concreteness,single theoretical study to analysis combining theoretical and empirical study.The theoretical framework of consumption pattern consists of consumption level,consumption structure,spending pattern etc.Consumption level refers to the scale of living consumption and service consumption in a certain period.Consumption structure includes both consumption subject structure and consumption object structure which shows people' s certain consumption distribution in a certain period.Spending pattern refers to the way of consumption activities.These three factors mentioned above have changed a lot since China's reform and opening.As the economy develops,the income of urban and rural residents increase a lot,which expands the scope of consumption and optimizes the consumption structure.People's multifarious material and cultural needs are met to a certain degree.China's long-term growth has also given rise to a series of problems in regional development and ecological problems:The urban-rural income difference shows an enlarging trend in China which leads to a different consumption patter between urban and rural residents.The same logic applies to the residents of east and west areas while policy factors also play an important role in it.In addition,it is urgent to develop a harmonic relationship between consumption and the nature for a society with ecological civilization under the situation of energy shortage and environmental pollution.The principal focuses of consumption pattern in China include three aspects.The first one is international comparison of consumption pattern.Consumption patterns of different countries in different cultural background has different characteristics.Developed country as American or Japan takes a more exceeding consumption than developing country.Consumption pattern of China is more conservative while residents are more likely to save for the next rainy day.The second one is the difference of domestic consumption patterns.The consumption patterns are different between different varies of people,regions,or stages of development.The last one is the empirical analysis of consumption pattern.The extraction of consumption patterns will be more accuracy and objectivity when using system clustering and multivariate statistical method.Based on these studies,this paper conducts comments on consumption pattern and advances the directions of future studies.(1) Effect of all-pervasive globalization on transformation of consumption pattern in China.Megaregion is a new spatial pattern of urbanization in the context of globalization.How to shift economy to consumptiondriven without sacrificing growth is a critical issue.(2) Consumption growth points in the new normal situation.Expanding domestic demand relies on fostering consumption growth points.Consumption of services and information consumption are the two keys to expand consumption growth.(3) Effect of high speed development of the Internet on transformation of consumption pattern in China.The development of the Internet of the twenty-first century have brought about some historic advances in consumption.This also causes a range of problems as consumption addiction,excessive consumption and irrational consumption.(4) Research on green consumption are becoming increasingly important.With the improvement of living level and the renewal of consumption view,people will pay more attention to green environmental protection than before.The formation mechanism of green consumption is an important research direction in the future.