ESCP Europe

This study explores the intellectual understanding of the new importance of consumer goods as well as the actual consumer behavior of households of all income levels. The author examines how the activation and evolution of consumer demand shaped the course of economic development, situating consumer behavior in the context of the household economy. He considers the changing consumption goals of households from the seventeenth century to the present and analyzes how household decisions have mediated between macro-level economic growth and actual human betterment.