Carbajal, Juan Carlos; Hall, Jonathan; Li, Hongyi - Peruvian Economic Association - PEA - 2015
A puzzling feature of conspicuous consumption, given its role in signaling wealth, is that it is not more conspicuous … obfuscate their conspicuous consumption? Our explanation is that by being imperfectly visible, subtly conspicuous consumption … wealth and social connectedness. Wealthy but poorly-connected individuals consume loudly conspicuous goods because subtle …