Status Seeking Behavior of the Poor: A Study on India

Sugata Marjit, Sattwik Santra and Koushik Hati

No 7213, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: This paper is the first attempt towards directly testing the existence of status seeking behavior of the poor for a developing economy, India, with the help of a large dataset. The paper empirically validates status consciousness among the relatively poor for both rural and urban areas across the states of India. The hypotheses that inequality impacts consumption patterns via status effect turns out to be statistically significant. Households in the majority of the states, under various specifications, demonstrate concern for status. We explore in detail the extent of this status effect for different sections of the population.

Keywords: status; consumption pattern; inequality; poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C13 D01 D12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7213

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