How Status Concerns Can Make Us Rich and Happy

Holger Strulik

Economica, 2015, vol. 82, 1217-1240

Abstract: type="main" xml:id="ecca12146-abs-0001">

This paper considers an overlapping generations model of economic growth populated by two types of individuals. Competitive types compare future consumption (i.e. wealth) with the mean. Self-sufficient types derive utility simply from their own consumption and do not compare themselves with others. I derive a condition under which the utility (happiness) of both types increases when the economy is populated by a larger share of competitive types. I show that a sufficiently high share of competitive types in a society can be inevitable for long-run economic growth to exist.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/ecca.2015.82.issue-s1 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: How status concerns can make us rich and happy (2013)
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:bla:econom:v:82:y:2015:i::p:1217-1240

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0013-0427

Access Statistics for this article

Economica is currently edited by Frank Cowell, Tore Ellingsen and Alan Manning

More articles in Economica from London School of Economics and Political Science Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().