Family members' expenditures for clothing categories

This article examines household expenditure patterns for categories of clothing; identifies major factors that influence household expenditures for different categories of clothing for men, women, boys, and girls; and analyzes income elasticities by clothing category. A sample of 1,364 husband‐wife families with at least one child aged 3 to 15 was selected from the 1984‐1985 Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey. Results of tobit analysis indicate that after‐tax income was the most important determinant of clothing expenditures in concert with family characteristics. Some parents' preference‐related variables had a stronger effect on their own clothing expenditures than on children's. Although all clothing categories examined had income elasticities below 1, those categories that are thought to have a stronger function in conveying social psychological meanings tended to have higher income elasticities than the categories that have less of such a function.