Autonomous Consumption

An expenditure that does not vary with one's income. That is, autonomous consumption is what one must spend regardless of how much money one makes. Autonomous consumption is largely fixed during certain time periods. Examples of autonomous consumption include rent or mortgage payments and debt service. If one's income is zero, then autonomous consumption is financed by spending savings or by borrowing. See also: Induced Expenditure.

autonomous consumption

that part of total CONSUMPTION expenditure that does not vary with changes in NATIONAL INCOME or DISPOSABLE INCOME. In the short term, consumption expenditure consists of INDUCED CONSUMPTION (consumption expenditure that varies directly with income) and autonomous consumption. Autonomous consumption represents some minimum level of consumption expenditure that is necessary to sustain a basic standard of living and which consumers would therefore need to undertake even at zero income. See CONSUMPTION SCHEDULE.

Collins Dictionary of Economics, 4th ed. © C. Pass, B. Lowes, L. Davies 2005

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References in periodicals archive

where [c.sub.o] is autonomous consumption, [c.sub.1] is the marginal propensity to consume, is the marginal propensity to consume out of remittance income and R represents remittance inflows.

Back to Basics: Remittances in the Keynesian Macroeconomic Framework

(6) Where a is autonomous consumption, b is the marginal propensity to consume, c is autonomous investment, d is the interest sensitivity of investment, e the is sensitivity of money demand to income, f is the sensitivity of money demand to the interest rate, and M is the real money supply.

Garrison on Keynes

Instead of displaying the familiar positive intercept (reflecting positive autonomous consumption) and a marginal propensity to consume (mpc) between 0 and 1, estimates with sample periods utilizing post-1973 data exhibit large, negative intercept terms in the neighborhood of -225 and mpcs near unity.

The textbook consumption function: a recent empirical irregularity, a comment

Let the consumption function be [C.sup.0]+[alpha][Y-T] where [alpha] is the marginal propensity to consume, C is aggregate consumption, [C.sup.0] is autonomous consumption, Y is aggregate income, and T is tax revenue.

Balanced budgets: economic nirvana or fiscal chaos?

where [C.sup.*] is an autonomous consumption component, b is the marginal propensity to consume, T is taxes net of transfers for all levels of government, and Y is income derived from local production; in Model 1 all income generated by E accrues to local residents by assumption.

A structural approach to the economic base multiplier

Since autonomous consumption is usually zero, consumption is therefore proportional to income.

External debt, growth and debt-service capacity in sub-Saharan Africa: a theoretical and empirical analysis