Inverted U-shaped conformism: An economic model of endogenous responses to the Joneses

Wai Chiu Woo

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), 2012, vol. 41, issue 1, 31-36

Abstract: Based on sociologists’ findings, it is more likely that middle-status people are “keeping up with the Joneses” while both the highest-status and lowest-status people are “running away from the Joneses”. Existing economic models fail to reproduce this inverted-U shaped (IUS) curve. In my model, response to the Joneses is endogenized and is related to one's status position. Under some reasonable assumptions, an IUS pattern will appear. A comparison with a sociological explanation of the same phenomenon and further implications will also be discussed.

Keywords: Keeping up with the Joneses; Status; Positional good (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A14 D11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:soceco:v:41:y:2012:i:1:p:31-36

DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2011.10.017

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