Kylie Mullican
Course: Principles of Micro Economics, ECON-100
Professor: Christopher Akujuobi
Assignment Title: An Analytical Study of Consumer Behavior in the U.S. Before and After The COVID-19 Pandemic
Assignment Details
What is your project about? What question(s) did you explore, and how?
My project is about the relationship between consumer behavior and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Because for most, if not all of us, have experienced a global crisis like this for the first time, it is not surprising that consumer behavior changed dramatically.
Some questions that I explored throughout the project are “Are there any lessons to take away from economic growth?” and “What are the economic indicators of consumer behavior in the U.S.?” I answered these questions by looking at data of the U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. I then took what I learned from class about the meaning of GDP levels and applying it to the values that I found from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Furthermore, I looked at the consumer price index (CPI) presented by the Bureau of Labor Statistics along with what I learned about CPI from class to deepen the understanding of these questions.
Along with this, I conducted a statistical test of difference between two groups: before vs. after the COVID-19 Pandemic, by taking the average annual data of CPI from the years 2000-2024 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Based on the results, I made recommendations for economic importance.
Application
How does the topic of your assignment connect to your field of study, another course you have taken, or your life?
The topic of my assignment connects to my life because I am a consumer. Though I have not personally bought items during the COVID-19 Pandemic, I have seen firsthand how much consumer behavior changed during this time of crisis. Not only have I seen how the COVID-19 Pandemic affected my family, but also the United States. Ever since the COVID19 Pandemic hit the U.S., the economy, shown through average annual CPI values of U.S. consumers, has increased dramatically. This study helped show that the idea of consumer behavior changing due to the COVID-19 Pandemic can be supported through average annual CPI values in the past 24 years.
Results/Conclusions
What did you learn? What answers did you come up with?
The results of the hypothesis test along with the graph of average annual CPI values in the U.S. from the years 2000-2024 show that there is a significant difference in the economy due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This is also due to inflation, which was a huge part in the economy during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The increase in CPI values shown from the graph along with the higher average of CPI after COVID-19 {x̄a > x̄b(288.039 > 215.320 )} help show that the idea that consumer behavior accurately reflects the economic fluctuations that occur, which in this case is inflation.
From these results, I recommend that foreconomic importance, governments, businesses, and individuals should understand the issues relating to consumer behavior. Everyone should be in a position such that if a crisis were to happen again, they are prepared for economic fluctuations.
Challenges and Successes
What challenge did you overcome that you are most proud of?
A challenge that I overcame during this project is the hypothesis test of the difference of U.S. CPI values from before and after the COVID-19 Pandemic. Because I have not done a hypothesis test before this project, I was nervous about being able to present the correct results. I overcame this by taking what I learned from statistics class, which I was also taking at the time, and applying it to this project. Because in statistics class, there is a set word problem with certain values stated (such as the alpha and confidence level), it was challenging to find those values. I am proud of overcoming this challenge because I was not confident in being able to complete this test correctly.