Consumer Durable Goods Expenditures, with Major Emphasis on the Role of Assets, Credit and Intentions

Abstract

Previous use of credit appears to be a significant discriminator of subsequent durable goods purchasing behavior and still more important as a discriminator of the financing method used by durable good purchasers, according to an analysis of reinterview data from the 1957 and 1958 Surveys of Consumer Finances. The relation of liquid asset holdings to subsequent purchasing behavior seems to be related to the type of such asset holdings, to previous and to current credit use. These and other relationships with respect to intentions to purchase suggest that surveys more pointedly focussed on the specific questions related to consumer durable goods purchasing behavior could yield better results than those yet attained.