We examine the role of consumption externalities in the demand for pharmaceuticals at both the brand level and over a therapeutic class of drugs. These effects emerge when use of a drug by others affects its value, and/or conveys information abut efficacy and safety to patients and physicians....

Consumers with higher income often spend more on luxury goods. As a result, lower-income consumers who seek to increase their perceived income status may be motivated to purchase conspicuous luxury goods. They may also desire to emulate the visible consumption displayed by their wealthier peers....

We examine a model of conspicuous consumption and explore the nature of competition in markets for conspicuous goods. We assume that, in addition to intrinsic utility, individuals seek status, and that perceptions of wealth affect status. Under identifiable conditions, the model generates Veblen...

The quest for status is a powerful motivator, but does it affect inequality? This paper presents a novel lab experiment that was designed and conducted to identify the relationship between inequality, status signaling, debt, and conspicuous consumption. It reports three main findings: First,...

Trust is a good approach to explain the functioning of markets, institutions or society as a whole. It is a key element in almost every commercial transaction over time and might be one of the main explanations of economic success and development. Trust diminishes the more we perceive others to...

This paper studies the asset pricing implications of technology spillover, an important externality in innovation. While technology spillover enables firms to produce a variety of products that better satisfy their customers' love for variety, such benefits are procyclical, and investors...

We employ a novel approach for analyzing the effects of relative consumption and relative wealth preferences on both the decentralized and the socially optimal economic growth rates. In the pertinent literature these effects are usually assessed by examining the dependence of the growth rates on...

The authors investigate the desirability of income taxes when the objective is to mitigate wasteful conspicuous consumption generated by people's status-seeking behavior. They consider the joint role of pre-tax wage inequality and of social norms determining how social status is assigned. They...

To predict others' behavior and make their own choices, voters and candidates can rely on information provided by polls and past election results. We isolate the impact of candidates' rankings using an RDD in French local and parliamentary two-round elections, where up to 3 or 4 candidates can...

Approximately 15 percent of households have a negative or zero net worth, leaving them vulnerable to financial insecurity at retirement. Some are vulnerable at retirement, in part, due to their lack of saving. However, some are also at risk because of their rates of consumption, relative to...

Conspicuous consumption has often been decried as immoral by many philosophers and scholars, yet it is ubiquitous and widely embraced. This research sheds light on the apparent paradox by proposing that the perceived morality of conspicuous consumption is malleable, contingent upon how different...

We employ a novel approach for analyzing the effects of relative consumption and relative wealth preferences on both the decentralized and the socially optimal economic growth rates. In the pertinent literature these effects are usually assessed by examining the dependence of the growth rates on...

We hypothesize that growing wealth inequality has exacerbated leveraged asset bubbles in the wealthiest nations over the last several decades through a “keeping up with the Joneses” effect. Rising inequality strengthens the desire of households to improve their social status by owning assets...