Consumption and its function: Exploring the Time-Series "Consumption Function" in Australia 1959-60 to 2005-06

This paper revisits the traditional economic consumption function, in timeseries\ud form. Motives of economic agents differ. We locate the decision to\ud consume by households in a brief economic-philosophical consideration of\ud motives and causation. Of special interest are the original constructions of\ud John Maynard Keynes. The aim here is to describe how consumption figures in\ud the Australian economy. This translates in practice into explaining the\ud consumption mechanism and accounting for it with reasonable empirical\ud confidence. We assume that readers understand reasonably well how national\ud income accounting works. While Australia, 1960 to 2005, will act as a case\ud study, the description should have wider validity