Advertisement spending and income: an aggregative analysis

Abstract

Existing studies tend to investigate cross-sectional relations between GDP and advertisement at the firm or industry level. The present study focuses on the long-run relation between GDP and aggregate advertisement spending using United States data for the period 1900-2007. Granger causality tests indicate the temporal precedence of GDP. A cointegration analysis shows that, as GDP increases, it causes advertisement spending to increase at a rate faster than its own growth. Faster growth relative to GDP is accompanied with a negative autonomous trend of advertisement spending. This trend appears consistent with the continuous technical progress in advertisement.