Clothing and Race: An Examination of the Effects of Race on Consumption

130 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1982.This study examines the effect of race on consumption and clothing expenditure is used as the measure of consumption because of its importance as a construct in anthropology, sociology and psychology. And also because historically, researchers from these disciplines and economics have reported that Blacks spent more on clothing than Whites at comparable income levels.Comparative consumption studies are reviewed and these studies have focused on Black-White differences in: (1) saving behavior, (2) allocations to various categories of expenditures, (3) product and brand choices, and (4) decision-making processes that lead to consumption behavior.All hypotheses were accepted leading one to conclude that race has no effect on consumption.Literature exploring clothing and race is also reviewed and studies from anthropology, sociology, psychology, and economics are discussed. Studies from anthropology are examined for the effects of folkways, customs, mores, laws, attitudes, and values on clothing consumption. Studies from sociology and psychology are examined for the effects of symbolism, conformity, self-expression, roles, status, social participation and reference groups on clothing consumption. Studies from economics are examined for the effects of income, assets, availability of credit, education, occupation, employment status, age, family structure, sex, place of residence, and region on clothing consumption.Using the Consumer Expenditure Survey: Interview Survey, 1972-1973, gathered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of the Census, the following hypotheses were tested. (H1) Race has no effect on the mean clothing expenditure of Black and White families.There are no Black-White differences in terms of the effects of the following variables on clothing expenditures. (H2) Income; (H3) Occupation; (H4) Education; (H5) Age; (H6) Employment status of heads and spouse; (H7) Family structure; (H8) Sex; (H9) Place of residence; (H10) Region.The model used to test the hypotheses can be represented by the following equation:Y = a(,0)+b(,i)R(,i)+b(,i+1)X(,i+1) + ...b(,n)X(,n)+R(,i)(b(,i+1)X(,i+1)+ ...b(,n)X(,n)) + ewhere:Y = square root of total clothing expendituresR(,i) = raceU of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD