Expenditure elasticities of households and child cost- he case of Turkey

In this study, it is aimed to estimate income elasticity and equivalence scale of a variety of goods at different points of the income distribution of households in Turkey. Therefore it is used household budget survey Turkish Statistical Institute which is belong to 2003, 2007 and 2011. Households are allocated to their income groups for each year as 20% 60% and 20%. For all year, the largest share of the budget is found as food of the lowest income groups, while housing is observed of greatest share of the budget of high-income groups. With most commodity groups share in terms of budget spending in Turkey are food, housing and transportation groups. On the other hand, transport share is observed an increase from 2011 to 2007 in a visible manner. In general of Turkey, Food, health goods, alcohol and tobacco were observed as necessary feature of spending. Culture-entertainment and education groups are found as essential goods for low-income groups, while the same goods are found as luxury goods for high-income groups. Cost of children is found between 32% and 42% ratio for a child with 0-5 years of age, 41% 48% for a child with 6-14 years of age, and 33% and 43% for a child with 15-19 years of age. All these results illustrate the consumer behavior differences between income groups for 2003, 2007 and 2011.