Why do people acquire consumer debt? In this article, I draw on the case of Chile and call into question the explanatory power of both the "trickle-down" and "privatized Keynesianism" hypotheses. I argue that these narratives fail to explain why, in the context of wage improvements, consumers...

Lower-income consumers who seek to increase their perceived social status or to emulate their wealthier peers may be motivated to purchase conspicuous luxury goods. Using a vehicle financing dataset, we find that non-prime consumers value vehicle prestige more than the average consumer. The...

Traditional tools of welfare economics identify the envy-related welfare loss from conspicuous consumption only under very strong assumptions. Measured income and life satisfaction offers an alternative for estimating such consumption externalities. The approach is developed in the context of...