How Do We Choose Our Identity? A Revealed Preference Approach Using Food Consumption

David Atkin, Eve Colson-Sihra and Moses Shayo

No 13653, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Are identities fungible? How do people come to identify with specific groups? This paper proposes a revealed preference approach, using food consumption to uncover ethnic and religious identity choices in India. We first show that consumption of identity goods (e.g. beef and pork) responds to forces suggested by social-identity research: group status and group salience, with the latter proxied by inter-group conflict. Moreover, identity choices respond to the cost of following the group's prescribed behaviors. We propose and estimate a modified demand system to quantify the identity changes that followed India's 1991 economic reforms. While social-identity research has focused on status and salience, economic costs appear to play a dominant role.

Date: 2019-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-hme
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

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Journal Article: How Do We Choose Our Identity? A Revealed Preference Approach Using Food Consumption (2021)
Working Paper: How Do We Choose Our Identity? A Revealed Preference Approach Using Food Consumption (2019)
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