Approximately 15 percent of households have a negative or zero net worth, leaving them vulnerable to financial insecurity at retirement. Some are vulnerable at retirement, in part, due to their lack of saving. However, some are also at risk because of their rates of consumption, relative to...

Using nationally representative data on consumption, we show that Blacks and Hispanics devote larger shares of their expenditure bundles to visible goods (clothing, jewelry, and cars) than do comparable Whites. We demonstrate that these differences exist among virtually all sub-populations, that...

We hypothesize that growing wealth inequality has exacerbated leveraged asset bubbles in the wealthiest nations over the last several decades through a “keeping up with the Joneses” effect. Rising inequality strengthens the desire of households to improve their social status by owning assets...

A burgeoning literature investigates the extent to which self-reported well-being (or happiness) or satisfaction with income is negatively related to the income of others. In many of the empirical studies, the assumption is that the incomes that matter are those of other individuals or...

The quest for status is a powerful motivator, but does it affect inequality? This paper presents a novel lab experiment that was designed and conducted to identify the relationship between inequality, status signaling, debt, and conspicuous consumption. It reports three main findings: First,...

This study presents a general model of conspicuous consumption in which two partly visible goods serve as a signal of dual unobserved individual attributes (wealth and wisdom). In addition to a classic Veblen good, a more sophisticated cultural conspicuous-consumption good is introduced. Agents'...