An Engel Curve Analysis of Household Expenditure: the Case of Central District of Muş Province

This study aims to investigate the validity of engel’s law and to reveal the spending behaviors and welfare levels of different income groups for the central district of muş province. since the required data were not available in muş province, a survey was conducted. engel’s curves are acquired by functional forms, and income elasticities are obtained in accordance with curves. the research findings indicated that the income elasticity was below one (compulsory expenditures) in food and non-alcoholic drinks, clothing and shoes, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, and health among 12 expenditure groups, but above one (luxurious expenditures) in other expenditure groups. these findings are parallel to those obtained in various engel’s curve studies conducted for turkey. the analysis based on income groups demonstrated that as the income level increased, the share allocated by consumers for food products decreased. this result shows that the engel’s law is valid for the central district of muş province.