Children and the economics of Christmas gift-giving

Carol Horton Tremblay and Victor Tremblay

Applied Economics Letters, 1995, vol. 2, issue 9, 295-297

Abstract: In spite of its importance to the retail sector, there has been relatively little research on the economics of Christmas Season gift-giving. The one exception is Waldfogel (1993), The Deadweight loss of Christmas, American Economic Review, 83, 1328-1336, who found a substantial amount of deadweight loss associated with Christmas gift-giving. Here it is shown that the Waldfogel study is incomplete and alternative models of consumer choice theory which better explain Christmas gift-giving are identified. Although the standard neoclassical and altruistic models predict no relationship between the population of children and per capita Christmas spending, a model is developed that includes non-pecuniary externalities and predicts that children have a positive impact on Christmas gift-giving. This prediction is supported by empirical evidence.

Date: 1995
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DOI: 10.1080/135048595357087

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