Status and the demand for visible goods: experimental evidence on conspicuous consumption |
| |
Authors: | David Clingingsmith Roman M Sheremeta |
| |
Institution: | 1.Weatherhead School of Management,Case Western Reserve University,Cleveland,USA;2.Economic Science Institute,Chapman University,Orange,USA |
| |
Abstract: | Some economists argue that consumption of publicly visible goods is driven by social status. Making a causal inference about this claim is difficult with observational data. We conduct an experiment in which we vary both whether a purchase of a physical product is publicly visible or kept private and whether the income used for purchase is linked to social status or randomly assigned. Making consumption choices visible leads to a large increase in demand when income is linked to status, but not otherwise. We investigate the characteristics that mediate this effect and estimate its impact on welfare. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|