Relative Consumption and Endogenous Labour Supply in the Ramsey Model: Do Status-Conscious People Work Too Much?

Walter Fisher and Franz X. Hof
Additional contact information
Franz X. Hof: Institute of Economics, University of Technology Vienna

No 85, Economics Series from Institute for Advanced Studies

Abstract: This paper introduces consumption externalities into a Ramsey-type model with endogenous labour supply and homogeneous agents. The instantaneous utility of any consumer is assumed to depend on work effort, own consumption and relative consumption, where the latter determines the individual's status in the society. Appropriate normality conditions with respect to consumption and leisure ensure that at least in the long run status-conscious individuals consume and work too much, compared to the social optimum, and that the capital stock is too high. Public policy can, however, induce the private sector to attain the social optimum by designing an optimal consumption tax policy.

Keywords: Status; Relative consumption; Work effort (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D62 D91 E21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19 pages
Date: 2000-09
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Downloads: (external link)
https://irihs.ihs.ac.at/id/eprint/1285 First version, 2000 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ihs:ihsesp:85

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
Institute for Advanced Studies - Library, Josefstädterstr. 39, A-1080 Vienna, Austria

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economics Series from Institute for Advanced Studies Josefstädterstr. 39, A-1080 Vienna, Austria. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Doris Szoncsitz ().