AbstractThe matter of the territories’ facilitation development in Latvia's regional economics is significant under the EU conditions. In order to compare the regional economic development level it is suggested to use the relation between consumer income growth and changes in expenditures on food and non-alcoholic beverages. The average income level of inhabitants in Riga region is higher than in other Latvian regions, which consequently demonstrates lower proportion of food expenditure in private consumption structure. The results of the analysis of covariance demonstrate that, first, Latvian regional level of economic development is significantly different from Latvia's average development level and, second, there is still a gap among living conditions in Latvia's regions

Arhipova, Irina

Paura, Liga

Elsevier - Publisher Connector 

 Procedia Economics and Finance  26 ( 2015 )  86 – 91 
2212-5671 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license 
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Research and Education Center
doi: 10.1016/S2212-5671(15)00963-6 
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Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
4th World Conference on Business, Economics and Management, WCBEM 
Regional development and private consumption structure in Latvia 
Irina Arhipovaa*, Liga Paurab 
aLatvia Univesity of Agriculture, Liela street 2, Jelgava, LV 3001, Latvia 
bLatvia Univesity of Agriculture, Liela street 2, Jelgava, LV 3001, Latvia  
Abstract 
The matter of the territories’ facilitation development in Latvia’s regional economics is significant under the EU conditions. In 
order to compare the regional economic development level it is suggested to use the relation between consumer income growth 
and changes in expenditures on food and non-alcoholic beverages. The average income level of inhabitants in Riga region is 
higher than in other Latvian regions, which consequently demonstrates lower proportion of food expenditure in private 
consumption structure. The results of the analysis of covariance demonstrate that, first, Latvian regional level of economic 
development is significantly different from Latvia’s average development level and, second, there is still a gap among living 
conditions in Latvia’s regions. 
© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. 
Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Research and Education Center. 
Keywords: regional development; private consumption structure; private income growth 
1. Introduction 
The issue of the facilitation development of territories in Latvia regional economic is significant under the EU 
conditions. For evaluation of living condition and living standards of society in Latvia two surveys, Household 
budget survey and the survey “Community statistics on income and living conditions” have been carried out by 
Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia (2015). Both surveys provided comprehensive information on income, 
consumption expenditure and living conditions in Latvia that are analyzed by Balina and Arhipova (2008). 
To reflect, the private consumption expenditure structure and Dutch household consumption behavior also have 
been considered by Limosani and Millemaci (2011) in the regional development analysis. In the study by Blundell 
 
 
* Irina Arhipova. Tel.: +371-630-05705; fax: +371-630-05705; 
E-mail address: irina.arhipova@llu.lv 
   thors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license 
(http://creativecommons.org/l censes/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Research and Education Center
87 Irina Arhipova and Liga Paura /  Procedia Economics and Finance  26 ( 2015 )  86 – 91 
and Etheridge (2010) the evolution of the inequality in the consumption, income, earnings, labour market 
participation, hours of work in the UK and the relationship between them has been analyzed. Various aspects of 
inequality in Canada by Brzozowski et al. (2010) have been researched.  
The research results show that income and consumption inequality increased over the last years. In the study by 
Jappelli and Pistaferri (2010) was found that in Italy during the sample period income inequality was higher and 
grew faster than consumption inequality. To analyze the various aspects of economic inequality in Japan the authors 
Lise et al. (2014) concluded that the rise in consumption inequality is substantially lower than earnings inequality. 
Income inequality has a negative effect on the household consumption rate. As a result by Jin et al. (2011), rising 
inequality in China is an important reason for the low household consumption rate.  
According to a Ernst Engel’ law the percentage of income spent on food rises slower than the percentage increase 
in income or that the proportion of income spent on food decreases as income increases, considering that other 
factors remain constant. With the household income growth, the absolute food expenditure increases. However, in 
comparison to other goods’ expenditure, the food expenditure relatively decreases. With the income growth, 
consumers can spend more money on other goods which promote better and more varied lifestyle. For example, 
although some of the extra income the consumers can spend on higher quality food products and other needs, more 
money is also spent on, for instance, on concerts, cinema, theater, more expensive purchases and trips during the 
holidays. In contrast, financially disadvantaged consumers spend most of their income on food and accommodation. 
Consequently, a more developed region faces a smaller proportion of food expenditure in the total private 
consumption compared to the regions with lower development level. Therefore, the goal of this article is to analyze 
the trends of expenditure level and structure of disposable income and consumption of Latvian households during 
the 2003-2013 period in different regions of Latvia. 
2. Analysis of income and private consumption structure 
The analysis has been conducted using the data of Household budget survey and the results of Central Statistical 
Bureau of Latvia (2015). First, an average income in Latvia regions from 2004-2012 of one member of the 
household is reviewed. In statistical surveys disposable income is defined as any income received in cash, value of 
goods received for providing services or goods, wages and salary, other work related income, bank transfers, net 
income from entrepreneurial activity and agricultural production, income from property, rent etc.  
As seen in Figure 1, the analyzed income data had been increasing until 2008 in all areas of households, when 
during the crisis period the income dropped and started recovering in the last two years. Average disposable income 
per household member in Riga and Riga suburb regions is the highest, whereas the average disposable income per 
household member in Latgale region was the lowest.  
For regional private sector analysis the following data from 2003 – 2013 have been reviewed: food and non-
alcoholic beverages consumption, recreation and culture expenditure (Tab.1). After having analyzed the data of food 
products expenditure share (%) in the private sector, it becomes obvious that the lowest share in private expenditure 
structure is Riga and Riga suburb regions. 
As seen in Figure 2 the highest food share in the whole private consumption expenditure sector is in Latgale 
region. In addition, the structure change tendency throughout the years in relation to the food product share depends 
on the whole household expenditure, as well as the location (region) during the 2003-2013. After having analyzed 
recreation and culture share from the total consumption expenditure, it becomes obvious that the highest share is 
relatively in Riga and Riga suburb regions, whereas the lowest share is in Latgale region. Moreover, the annual 
tendency of structure change with regards to recreation and culture share depends on the whole household 
expenditure and on the region during the 2003-2013 period. 
Having summarized the gathered information, it is evident that based on the data of the private consumption 
expenditure structure the following hypothesis can be proposed: the connection between consumer income growth 
and the change of food consumption characterizes the residents’ wellbeing level in Latvian region. The residents’ 
average income level in Riga region is higher than in other Latvia’s regions, hence, the food consumption share in 
the private sector is lower. However, Latgale residents’ average income level is the lowest, therefore, the food 
consumption expenditure share in the private sector is the highest.  
 
88   Irina Arhipova and Liga Paura /  Procedia Economics and Finance  26 ( 2015 )  86 – 91 
 
Fig. 1. Households disposable income in statistical regions of Latvia on average per household member per month from 2004 to 2012. 
Table 1. An average consumption expenditure structure per household member per month (EUR) from 2003 to 2013. 
Expenditure 
(EUR) in 
year 
Regions 
Riga Riga suburb Vidzeme Kurzeme Zemgale Latgale 
Total in 2003, 
incl. 203.73 134.36 111.18 123.38 114.67 97.51 
Food products 53.68 44.55 42.46 42.76 42.37 41.97 
Recreation 
and culture 16.08 7.78 6.53 7.34 6.29 4.64 
Total in 2004, 
incl. 215.28 157.9 138.46 147.47 137.53 115.68 
Food products 54.5 48.41 47.45 46.46 49.56 45.69 
Recreation 
and culture 15.62 7.84 9.32 9.11 7.51 5.39 
Total in 2005, 
incl. 241.95 184.67 140.84 152.16 154.34 138.15 
Food products 63 58.35 51.38 50.14 52.25 53.37 
Recreation 
and culture 19.32 10.64 9.76 9.66 7.4 7.44 
Total in 2006, 
incl. 286.24 214.3 188.56 200.9 186.38 161.57 
Food products 68.33 61.2 56.26 57.65 59.48 60.74 
Recreation 
and culture 26.31 13.82 12.55 14.34 11.54 7.64 
Total in 2007, 
incl. 345.26 309.43 234.36 260.6 240.32 227.26 
Food products 77.08 70.36 69.51 70.32 68.54 73.14 
Recreation 
and culture 32.27 24.73 18.6 21.7 17 13.35 
Total in 2008, 
incl. 405.56 360.37 270.42 293.64 285.31 258.27 
Food products 91.09 86.51 77.43 79.91 79.2 81.05 
Recreation 
and culture 39.34 29.11 22.82 23.68 19.96 15.71 
Total in 2009, 
incl. 335.1 278.06 233.12 249.5 250.4 233.45 
Food products 79.45 72.89 70.7 69.32 66.53 76.55 
Recreation 33.14 22.52 16.76 16.7 16.66 12.45 
89 Irina Arhipova and Liga Paura /  Procedia Economics and Finance  26 ( 2015 )  86 – 91 
and culture 
Total in 2010, 
incl. 323.4 229.58 205.88 216.67 205.45 210.57 
Food products 79.88 65.92 64.87 64.98 67.24 71.4 
Recreation 
and culture 26.21 15.84 15.85 14.29 13.15 10.4 
Total in 2011, 
incl. 329.86 254.86 246.06 239.55 237.68 207.48 
Food products 83.15 70.55 78.81 76.65 73.05 72.69 
Recreation 
and culture 26.78 15.13 17.93 12.56 13.7 10.54 
Total in 2012, 
incl. 342.19 289.37 239.68 251.09 236.65 236.25 
Food products 84.28 81.32 73.29 71.54 75.21 78.22 
Recreation 
and culture 25.6 19.25 14.17 16.97 12.01 13.97 
Total in 2013, 
incl. 365 305.59 260.56 271.29 262.36 240.62 
Food products 92.05 81.12 84.59 81.65 79.32 81.43 
Recreation 
and culture 27.81 23.1 17.11 18.66 16.07 13.89 
Source: Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia (2015). 
 
Fig. 2. Food and non-alcoholic beverages consumption share from the total consumption expenditure by region on average per household 
member per month from 2003 to 2013. 
The data of both figures show that the difference between the regions’ living conditions, especially amongst 
Riga, Riga suburb and Latgale household living conditions in the current decade has not changed. Nevertheless, on 
the whole, the living conditions amongst all the household groups have improved. Meanwhile, the higher the 
urbanization level, the higher the living conditions’ growth rate.  
The second question which has been researched is - how has the living conditions changed during the current 
decade amongst various households. The data (Table 1) demonstrates that the consumption expenditure amongst the 
households have increased amongst all six regions. It can be concluded that the differentiation among the 
households in Riga and fifth Latgale regions has decency to decrease.  
90   Irina Arhipova and Liga Paura /  Procedia Economics and Finance  26 ( 2015 )  86 – 91 
Having collected the results of the quantitative analysis, the following hypothesis is proposed: regional economic 
level differs from Latvia’s average development level. In addition, Riga region has the highest economic 
development level, which is followed by Kurzeme region, Vidzeme and Zemgale regional level, whereas Latgale is 
the region with the lowest development level. 
3. Empirical model and estimation results of private consumption expenditure structure 
To identify the effect of the private consumption expenditure on private consumption expenditure structure 
behavior, we estimate the following two empirical models: 
ܨ ൌ ߙଵ ൅ ߚଵ ή ݈݊ሺܧሻ ൅ ߛଵ ή ܻ ൅ߜଵ ή ݐ ൅ ߝଵ   (1) 
where F is an average food and non-alcoholic beverage consumption share from total consumption expenditure 
per household member per month (%) and E is an average total consumption expenditure per household member per 
month (EUR). Control variable Y includes Latvia regions fixed effects and t includes annual fixed effects, and 
ܴ ൌ ߙଶ ൅ ߚଶ ή ݈݊ሺܧሻ ൅ ߛଶ ή ܻ ൅ߜଶ ή ݐ ൅ ߝଶ   (2) 
where R is an average recreation and culture consumption share from total consumption expenditure per 
household member per month (%) and E is an average total consumption expenditure per household member per 
month (EUR). Control variable Y includes Latvia regions fixed effects and t includes annual fixed effects.  
In Eq. (1), J1 measures the effect of region inequality on food and non-alcoholic beverage consumption, G1 
measures the effect of annual inequality on food and non-alcoholic beverages consumption and E1 is the total 
consumption expenditure elasticity of food and non-alcoholic beverage consumption.  
In Eq. (2), J2 measures the effect of region inequality on recreation and culture consumption, G2 measures the 
effect of annual inequality on recreation and culture consumption and E2 is the total consumption expenditure 
elasticity of recreation and culture consumption.  
This analysis of covariance results show that when an average total consumption expenditure per household 
member per month increases by 1%, food and non-alcoholic beverages consumption share from an average total 
consumption expenditure per household member per month significantly decreases by 0.189% (p<0.05). In addition, 
the tendency of the structure change in relation to the food consumption share depends on the region (p<0.05) and 
on the year (p<0.05) in the 2003-2013 period.  
Next, analysis of covariance results show that when an average total consumption expenditure per household 
member per month increases by 1%, recreation and culture consumption share from an average total consumption 
expenditure per household member per month increases non-significant by 0.012% (p=0.44). In addition, the 
tendency of the structure change in relation to the recreation and culture share depends on the regions (p<0.05) and 
on the year (p<0.05) in the 2003-2013 period.  
To summarize, the results show that there is relation between consumer total expenditure growth and changes in 
consumption of food products, recreation and culture. This phenomenon characterizes the welfare level of the 
population in Latvian regions. 
4. Conclusions 
After having analyzed the data on the share of food expenditure in private consumption structure of Latvian 
regions, it was found that over the past decade the lowest proportion of private food consumption in total private 
consumption structure was in Riga and Riga suburb regions, while the highest proportion was in Latgale region. 
Besides, structural changes in trend over the years with respect to the proportion of the food expenditure depend on 
the year.  
To summarize, the results show that there is relation between consumer income growth and changes in 
consumption of food products. This phenomenon characterizes the welfare level of the population in Latvian 
regions. The average income level of inhabitants in Riga region is higher than in other Latvian regions, which 
91 Irina Arhipova and Liga Paura /  Procedia Economics and Finance  26 ( 2015 )  86 – 91 
consequently demonstrates lower proportion of food expenditure in private consumption structure. On contrary, 
average income in Latgale region is the lowest, therefore, the food expenditure share of private consumption 
structure is the largest. The results of the analysis of covariance demonstrate that, first, Latvian regional level of 
economic development is significantly different from Latvia’s average development level and, second, there is still a 
gap among living conditions in Latvia’s regions. 
References 
Balina, S., Arhipova, I., (2008). Income, consumption and living condition in rural areas of Latvia. Economic science for rural development. 
Finances, taxes, investment and support systems 17, Latvia, Jelgava, 36-40. 
Blundell, R., Etheridge, B., (2010). Consumption, income and earning inequality in Britain. Review of Economic Dynamics 13 (1), 76-102. 
Brzozowski, M., Gervais, M., Klein, P., Suzuki, M., (2010). Consumption, income and earning inequality in Canada. Review of Economic 
Dynamics 13 (1), 52-75. 
Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, 2015. Retrieved from http://www.csb.gov.lv. 
Jappelli, T., Pistaferri, L., (2010). Does consumption inequality track income inequality in Italy? Review of Economic Dynamics 13 (1), 133-153. 
Jin, Y., Li, H., Wu, B., (2011). Income inequality, consumption, and social-status seeking. Journal of Comparative Economics 39(2), 191-204. 
Limosani, M., Millemaci, E., (2011). Evidence on excess sensitivity of consumption to predictable income growth. Research in Economics 65(2), 
71-77. 
Lise, J., Sudo, N., Suzuki, M., Yamada, K., Yamada, T., (2014). Wage, income and consumption inequality in Japan, 1981-2008: From boom to 
lost decades. Review of Economic Dynamics 17(4), 582-612.  


Regional Development and Private Consumption Structure in Latvia 

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Regional Development and Private Consumption Structure in Latvia

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