Class, Caste and Conspicuous Consumption in India

Using nationally representative household-level panel data from India, we study status-signalling through conspicuous consumption across castes, religions and economic classes. Conditional on permanent income, Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) spend more, while Muslims and Christians spend less on visible consumption compared to upper-caste Hindus. There is no significant difference between the visible expenditures of the upper caste and the Otherwise Backward Castes (OBC) and Sikhs and Jains. Lower-income households spend more on conspicuous consumption regardless of caste and religion than their richer counterparts. Conspicuous spending is higher during festivals and lower in areas with higher property crime rates and visible inequality. Among OBCs, SCs and Muslims, visible spending is higher among those receiving government transfers than those without public transfer income.