Abstract: By employing the extended linear expenditure system (ELES) model, this paper investigates the consumption structure changes in the core cities of China’s three metropolitan areas, i.e., Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and conducts a comparative analysis from the three aspects of marginal propensity to consume, income elasticity of demand and price elasticity of demand. The findings show that the living standards of the urban residents in the core cities of the three metropolitan areas have been improved year by year, on the whole it has passed the basic stage with survival consumption as primary consumption, and entered the stage of paying more attention to consumption quality, which gives priority to developmental consumption and increases the proportion of hedonic consumption. During the process, the regional integration has driven the optimization and upgrading of consumption structure in the core cities of the metropolitan areas, the different functional positioning of core cities in different metropolitan areas will make the process have their own characteristics.

Key words: consumption structure; functional positioning of cities; metropolitan areas