Appliance ownership linked to race, culture: Study

The analysis from researchers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) shows that the appliances people buy depends not only on their income, but also factors such as wealth, race and culture. Using household survey data, Narasimha Rao and colleague Kevin Ummel looked at appliance ownership and assessed the links to appliance affordability, wealth, race and religion, along with other household characteristics but were “surprised at the extent to which non-income factors explain differences in appliance ownership” in countries. 

“People with similar incomes in different countries have very different sets of large electric appliances. The affordability of appliances, wealth indicators and even culture and ethnicity in some cases, better explain ownership than does just income,” said Rao in a statement on Wednesday. 

“In India, they found that people have a strong preference for televisions over refrigerators, while in South Africa and Brazil, this is not the case. They also found that certain communities have a propensity for or against ownership of particular appliances. 

For example, Sikhs in India have a greater chance of owning refrigerators than others, and blacks in South Africa and Brazil are less likely to own washing machines than others,” the statement said. The reasons for these differences were “not fully discernible” in the data. 

The researchers suspect that differences in appliance prices between countries play a role, as do particular cultural preferences, for example, Sikhs consume a large amount of dairy products. 

Affordability of appliances, defined as their expenditure share, provides a more comparable metric for cross-country comparison than does just income. Indicators of wealth, such as ownership of vehicles or home size and quality, also influence purchases, the study said. 

“Surprisingly, race (colour) seems to play a distinct role in both Brazil and South Africa in explaining washing machine ownership, while religion was found to play a role in refrigerator ownership in India. These differences could reflect cultural preferences, or differences in market access. 

This merits further exploration,” the study notes. “Our study suggests that to make appliances widely accessible to the poor, we need to consider affordability and price trends more carefully,” said Rao.