“Relative concerns for consumption at the top”: An intertemporal analysis for the UK

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Standard

“Relative concerns for consumption at the top” : An intertemporal analysis for the UK. / Quintana-Domeque, Climent; Wohlfart, Johannes.

In: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Vol. 129, 01.09.2016, p. 172-194.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Harvard

Quintana-Domeque, C & Wohlfart, J 2016, '“Relative concerns for consumption at the top”: An intertemporal analysis for the UK', Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, vol. 129, pp. 172-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2016.06.005

APA

Quintana-Domeque, C., & Wohlfart, J. (2016). “Relative concerns for consumption at the top”: An intertemporal analysis for the UK. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 129, 172-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2016.06.005

Vancouver

Quintana-Domeque C, Wohlfart J. “Relative concerns for consumption at the top”: An intertemporal analysis for the UK. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. 2016 Sep 1;129:172-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2016.06.005

Author

Quintana-Domeque, Climent ; Wohlfart, Johannes. / “Relative concerns for consumption at the top” : An intertemporal analysis for the UK. In: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. 2016 ; Vol. 129. pp. 172-194.

Bibtex

@article{9cdd850baa92452dbf339e5b851f6632,
title = "“Relative concerns for consumption at the top”: An intertemporal analysis for the UK",
abstract = "This paper investigates whether the consumption of rich households provides a reference point in the intertemporal consumption choices of non-rich households. Using UK household data on food consumption, we estimate the Euler equation implied by a life-cycle model incorporating relative concerns for the consumption of rich households. According to both our OLS and GMM estimates, for the population of non-rich households as a whole, there is no evidence of such relative concerns. We also examine an alternative model of relative concerns in which households overconsume when exposed to higher reference group consumption, and find correlational evidence that this may be the case for food consumed away from home. Finally, we investigate the presence of heterogeneous relative concerns (across county and household characteristics) in both models, finding evidence of relative concerns (for consumption at the top) in counties with relatively low income inequality. This mechanism seems to operate for food consumed away from home.",
keywords = "Inequality, Keeping up with the “rich” Joneses, Upward-relative concerns",
author = "Climent Quintana-Domeque and Johannes Wohlfart",
year = "2016",
month = sep,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1016/j.jebo.2016.06.005",
language = "English",
volume = "129",
pages = "172--194",
journal = "Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization",
issn = "0167-2681",
publisher = "Elsevier",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - “Relative concerns for consumption at the top”

T2 - An intertemporal analysis for the UK

AU - Quintana-Domeque, Climent

AU - Wohlfart, Johannes

PY - 2016/9/1

Y1 - 2016/9/1

N2 - This paper investigates whether the consumption of rich households provides a reference point in the intertemporal consumption choices of non-rich households. Using UK household data on food consumption, we estimate the Euler equation implied by a life-cycle model incorporating relative concerns for the consumption of rich households. According to both our OLS and GMM estimates, for the population of non-rich households as a whole, there is no evidence of such relative concerns. We also examine an alternative model of relative concerns in which households overconsume when exposed to higher reference group consumption, and find correlational evidence that this may be the case for food consumed away from home. Finally, we investigate the presence of heterogeneous relative concerns (across county and household characteristics) in both models, finding evidence of relative concerns (for consumption at the top) in counties with relatively low income inequality. This mechanism seems to operate for food consumed away from home.

AB - This paper investigates whether the consumption of rich households provides a reference point in the intertemporal consumption choices of non-rich households. Using UK household data on food consumption, we estimate the Euler equation implied by a life-cycle model incorporating relative concerns for the consumption of rich households. According to both our OLS and GMM estimates, for the population of non-rich households as a whole, there is no evidence of such relative concerns. We also examine an alternative model of relative concerns in which households overconsume when exposed to higher reference group consumption, and find correlational evidence that this may be the case for food consumed away from home. Finally, we investigate the presence of heterogeneous relative concerns (across county and household characteristics) in both models, finding evidence of relative concerns (for consumption at the top) in counties with relatively low income inequality. This mechanism seems to operate for food consumed away from home.

KW - Inequality

KW - Keeping up with the “rich” Joneses

KW - Upward-relative concerns

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84979587850&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.jebo.2016.06.005

DO - 10.1016/j.jebo.2016.06.005

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:84979587850

VL - 129

SP - 172

EP - 194

JO - Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

JF - Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

SN - 0167-2681

ER -

ID: 231945859