Consumption, social interactions and preferences

Consommation, interactions sociales et préférences

Eve Sihra Colson ()
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Eve Sihra Colson: ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: The notion of need often characterizes the strict minimum amount of food and shelter to survive. Needs have however recurrently been described as essentially relative and context-driven. Indeed, cultural and social incentives tend to provide powerful motivations for individuals to engage in choices sometimes detrimental to their short- or long-term fitness. These choices reveal certain needs which are beyond mere sustenance. My thesis aims at better understanding these decisions by including cultural and social components to a standard theory of consumption. By doing so, it contributes to bridge the gap between two important branches of the literature: demand analysis and behavioral/social economics. The different chapters adress questions such as: Why do malnourished people spend a significant portion of their budget on conspicuous goods (first chapter)? Why do people of different social groups choose to consume different types of goods, given similar prices, income and demographics (second chapter)? Do social interactions contribute to the persistence of localized tastes (third chapter)? And does market integration contribute to taste convergence (fourth chapter)? These topics require to take into account the social meaning of consumption choices, aside from income, prices and functionality. In other words, they require to consider consumption as a language.

Keywords: Consumer behavior; Inequality; Social interactions; Social preferences; Comportement du consommateur; Inégalité; Interactions sociales; Préférences sociales (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-06-26
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://theses.hal.science/tel-03436545v1
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Published in Economics and Finance. Institut d'études politiques de paris - Sciences Po, 2017. English. ⟨NNT : 2017IEPP0015⟩

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