Consumption Segregation

Corina Boar and Elisa Giannone

No 31133, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper introduces consumption segregation, a new margin of residential segregation, and examines its patterns, causes, and discusses its aggregate consequences. We use new longitudinal and highly granular data to measure consumption segregation in the United States and document that it is high but relatively stable over the past 15 years, with substantial regional variation. We find that income segregation plays a more prominent role than other forms of segregation in driving consumption segregation, mainly due to the inability to smooth shocks to income. We illustrate a new mechanism through which, in the presence of social comparisons, consumption segregation can exacerbate wealth inequality.

JEL-codes: E20 R2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
Note: EFG
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w31133.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:nbr:nberwo:31133

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w31133

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().