Consumer durables
Topic: National Income Accounting: GDP, GVA and Welfare · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "National Income Accounting"
Meaning
Consumer durables are consumer goods that last a long time. Examples are TV sets, cars and home computers. Households buy them for consumption, not for producing other goods. But like machines, they are used for many years and need repair and maintenance.
Example
A family in Kochi buys a refrigerator and uses it for ten years, with an occasional service visit. It is a consumer durable. Food bought for the week is an ordinary consumer good.
Don't confuse with
- Capital goods: a car bought by a taxi company to earn income is a capital good, because it is used to produce a service for sale. A car bought by a family for its own use is a consumer durable.
Related concepts
- Final goods
- Intermediate goods
- Consumer goods
- Capital goods
- Double counting
- Stock variable
- Flow variable
- Investment
- Gross investment
- Depreciation