Dynamic Consumer Theory

This book is the first treatise on consumer theory in a dynamic framework. It expands the conventional static consumer theory into a stochastic dynamic framework accommodating various combinations of uncertainties in future income, life-span and future preferences. These extensions incorporate realistic and intrinsic characteristics of the consumer decision into the analysis of consumer theory. Novel innovations to the field of consumer theory presented in the book include wealth-dependent ordinary demand, inter-temporal indirect utility function, wealth compensated demand, wealth expenditure function and inter-temporal Roy's identity under uncertainty. A prominent highlight of the book is the derivation of a series of stochastic dynamic Slutsky equations. New optimal consumption paradigms presented include - (i) utility maximization in a dynamic framework, duality and wealth compensated demand, and dynamic Slutsky equations, (ii) dynamic consumption under random horizon and income, (iii) consumption amid uncertainties in income, life span and preferences, and (iv) stochastic future prices and consumption decision. The mathematical foundation of the book provides a fertile ground for the analysis of dynamic consumption under stochastic dynamic environments. The book paves the way for a new phase in optimal consumption analysis and will be of interest to economics and mathematics students, economists, mathematicians and researchers in consumer behaviour.