This dissertation explores inequality and longer work hours and the relationship to various businesses and their ability to obtain low-interest loans. The first chapter provides insight into the relationship of how a desire to emulate the standard of consumption established by the wealthy has...

We investigate Veblen effects on work hours, namely the way that a desire to emulate the consumption standards of the rich induces longer work hours among the rest. Consistent with our model of these asymmetric social comparisons, greater inequality predicts longer work hours in ten OECD...

This paper investigates whether one's effort to keep up with the Joneses has any effect on labor supply behavior. We provide a simple model and empirical evidence that labor supply decisions of married women are influenced by relative as well as absolute income of their husbands. We find, after...