A Study on the Influence of the Income Structure on the Consumption Structure of Rural Residents in China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper gives interesting forecast of the tendency in rural residents’ consumption by analysing how income structure has influenced the marginal propensity to consume of the last 20 years through the extended linear expenditure system.

 The article provides insights for the use of existing data through extended linear expenditure system (ELES) to predict the future tendency.

 Results show that there is a large room for stimulating rural residents’ consumption and how to influence them.

 Some modifications are suggested as follows:

 

-Eq. 3, line 159: epsilon_i is random disturbance term: is it limited by certain threshold? please comment it in the text if possible

-page 7, line 223: it should be useful at least a citation regarding the concept of R2 and F test

 

Mistyping / mistakes:

- page 12, lines 344: put the number "1" to superscript format in the sentence: "...structure of rural residents1."

- page 13, lines 350: put the number "2" to superscript format in the sentence: "...property rights system2,"

- table 3, page 8: the note about the "*" superscript does not apply, please neglect it

 

Further comments:

- table 3, page 8: I am not able to get the same results, may you check Correlation coefficient again? (for instance: wage vs. clothing expenditure correlation coefficient gives to me a lower value of 0.98 and even lower for other services and education. Also, for F-test I get different values

- table 4, page 9: can you give some insight in the calculation of F-test and T value, maybe in an Annex?

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

This is a very difficult article to review for this particular journal. First, I would like to note that the quality of the empirical work and analysis are high and well worthy of publication. The problem is that this was submitted to a sustainability journal where this would fit more properly in an economic development journal. Certainly economic sustainability and growth in low-income situations is an important are of study. But even in a purely economic development focused journal at this juncture of human history and academic priority, environmental sustainability is an important consideration. Since consumption and economic growth are the main threat to environmental sustainability, and discussion of consumption must address the environmental impact of that consumption. That is obviously a requirement in a journal titled "Sustainability."

The data used can likely speak to the well-being per unit of consumption aspect and focus more on efficient lower environmental impact welfare generation pathways. With the current intellectual/scientific environment trending more toward degrowth models based on redistribution, analysis of that redistribution (from higher income individuals to lower income rural individuals) as far as welfare and environmental impact is important. These data could be used for that purpose. However, studies on stimulating economic development through increased consumption are becoming irrelevant in the face of the environmental sustainability threat.

This would not be a serious flaw in an economic development journal that does not prioritize sustainability (although most are beginning to prioritize just that). But a journal titled "Sustainability" needs to incorporate a less myopic, more holistic, view.

So, for this journal, I would suggest a major revision that at least estimates environmental impacts per dollar of consumption derived from various income sources. That would be useful as far as sustainability is concerned. Otherwise, I would suggest submitting to an economic development journal.

Again, the data, theory, and writing are quite good (although there are a few English language issues). But articles on how to increase economic development via increased consumption and expenditure really have no place in a sustainability journal, and likely need to be expanded to address broader sustainability issues to be even appropriate for an economic development journal in 2022.

My suggestion first, would be to meaningfully integrate environmental sustainability into the analysis. If only a small amount of this can be done, I would submit to an economic development journal. If a large change toward sustainability analysis can be managed, I would re-submit to this journal.

Author Response

    First of all, thanks to the reviewer for your rigorous academic attitude and constructive suggestions! Thank you so much!

    The revised manuscript has revised English language and style, and deleted some references with low relevance, and also added some new references.

    Sustainable development includes the coordinated development of society, economy, culture, resources, environment, life and other aspects. We have carefully reviewed the literature related to sustainable development. At present, the Chinese government has made great efforts in resource and ecological environment protection, and has made some breakthroughs in environmental protection technology and institutional innovation. There are also many articles related to these. In this context, there are relatively few articles focusing on the sustainable development of China's society, economy and culture. However, with the acceleration of China's social and economic development, the problem of sustainable development of social economy is increasingly prominent. Consumption is a very important part of economic development, which is also a main reason why our team chose to study this topic.

    China has also made some efforts in the sustainable development of production and consumption. For example, all manufacturing enterprises must submit an environmental impact assessment report when applying for registration. The Chinese government encourages consumers to purchase new energy vehicles. On the one hand, it gives financial subsidies to automobile enterprises. On the other hand, it reduces and exempts consumers' car purchase tax to expand the sales of new energy vehicles, and so on. However, these policies have only changed the models of commodities purchased by consumers to a certain extent, but failed to fundamentally optimize people's consumption structure and achieve sustainable development. In the past 20 years, the income and consumption of rural residents in China have increased very fast, and the growth rate has exceeded that of urban residents. Existing research results show that people's consumption patterns and consumption structures inevitably affect human sustainable development, appropriately increasing education and health care expenditure can promote sustainable development. However, from the perspective of consumption structure of rural residents, consumption is still focused on material consumption, which is not conducive to sustainable economic and social development. Through the research, it is found that the income structure of rural residents in China can significantly affect the consumption structure. Therefore, based on this perspective, our team studies how to optimize the consumption structure by adjusting the income structure of Chinese rural residents, so as to achieve high-quality social and economic development, and achieve sustainable development. Our authors revised the manuscript after careful consideration and discussion. The revised manuscript complements in detail the impact of consumption structure on the sustainable development of social economy, the necessity and importance of optimizing consumption structure in the “Abstract”, “1. Introduction”, “2. Review of research” and “5.2. Policy implications” sections. The revised parts are marked in red.

    Thanks again for reviewer’s guidance and suggestions!

Reviewer 3 Report

The topic is interesting and timely. However, the literature review includes publications from the 1930s, 1950s and 1970s. The lack of reference to the literature on the subject from the last 10 years is a major shortcoming. Thus, the entire "Review of research" section should be improved and recent literature should be included. 

Author Response

    I feel so grateful for the reviewer's careful and meticulous review and suggested amendments! Thank you so much!

    The revised manuscript has revised English language and style, and deleted some references with low relevance, and also added some new references.

    According to the reviewer's suggestions, the revised manuscript adds comments on recent references and updates the references in "2. Review of research". The revised parts are marked in red.

    Thank you again for your suggestions!

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

I am convinced that the article should be published.