Luxury car owners are not happier than frugal car owners

Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn (), Tim Nash and Natasha Tursi

International Review of Economics, 2015, vol. 62, issue 2, 141 pages

Abstract: The happiness literature has largely omitted the topic of consumption so far. While some studies investigate the most expensive consumption item, housing, there are no studies about the second most expensive item, the car. We use 2011 wave of American Panel Study of Income Dynamics to investigate the relationship between car consumption and happiness. Car consumption is defined in two ways, as luxury cars (expensive cars, >$35k) and frugal cars (inexpensive cars). We find that luxury car ownership does not make people happier than frugal car ownership. We discuss the practical implications of our findings and directions for future research. This study is limited to the USA, and results may differ elsewhere. Copyright The Author(s) 2015

Keywords: Happiness; Life satisfaction; Subjective well-being; Car; Conspicuous consumption; Luxury consumption; I31; E21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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DOI: 10.1007/s12232-015-0223-2

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