Status and the Demand for Visible Goods: Experimental Evidence on Conspicuous Consumption

David Clingingsmith and Roman Sheremeta

Working Papers from Chapman University, Economic Science Institute

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: status; conspicuous consumption; experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D03 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Status and the demand for visible goods: experimental evidence on conspicuous consumption (2018)
Working Paper: Status and the Demand for Visible Goods: Experimental Evidence on Conspicuous Consumption (2017)
Working Paper: Status and the Demand for Visible Goods: Experimental Evidence on Conspicuous Consumption (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:chu:wpaper:15-27

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