Protestant Ethic, Status Seeking, and Economic Growth

Michael Rauscher ()

No 9, Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory from University of Rostock, Institute of Economics, Germany

Abstract: Commodities do not only serve the purpose of satisfying direct needs in the production and con-sumption process. Some of them can also be used to display social status and to affect the position of an individual in society. This paper addresses the question under which circum-stances status-seeking behaviour may lead to permanent economic growth in a simple model. The protestant ethic is interpreted as a special case of status-seeking behaviour. It is shown that societies composed of status-seeking individuals may grow faster than less status-oriented societies.

Keywords: Protestant ethic; social status; economic growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 D92 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1997
View list of references View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.wiwi.uni-rostock.de/fileadmin/Institute ... pdf/wp009thuenen.pdf First version, 1997 (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: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ros:wpaper:09

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory from University of Rostock, Institute of Economics, Germany
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Doris Neuberger ().