data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we estimate the causal effect of changes in reference consumption, defined as … the consumption level of all households who are perceived to be richer, on household savings and consumption. When … controlling for own income, an increase in reference consumption of 100 euros leads to an increase in consumption of 10 to 25 …

2000s, which allowed for only moderately increasing consumption inequality, despite sharply rising income inequality. We … combine survey data on household consumption with our own representative survey on the visibility and status relevance of … that non-rich households shift their income allocations towards more visible and status relevant areas of consumption when …