The Consumer Consumption Conundrum: An Explanation
用傅里叶灵活形式近似耐用和非耐用品的效用与服务流，发现商品间替代弹性随时间变化，因此政策制定应考虑这种变化，避免使用恒定替代弹性函数得出误导结论。
This paper uses the Fourier flexible form to jointly approximate utility and service flows from durable and nondurable goods. In contrast, parametric functions are usually not flexible enough to accurately approximate nonseparability and often give inconsistent results. This paper calls these inconsistent results the consumer consumption conundrum. The author calculates Morishima elasticities of substitution because Charles Blackorby and Robert R. Russell (1989) show that the Allen-Uzawa measure of substitution is incorrect. Results show that substitution between commodities are variable over time. Therefore, policy intended to affect consumption should take the variability of substitution into account because constant elasticity of substitution functions may give misleading conclusions. Copyright 1997 by Ohio State University Press.