Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/32637 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
Papers on Economics and Evolution No. 1003
Publisher: 
Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Abstract: 
A century ago, Thorstein Veblen introduced socially contingent consumption into the economic literature. This paper complements the scarce empirical literature by testing his conjecture on South African household data and finds that Black and Coloured households spend relatively more on visible consumption than comparable White households. In an emerging economy context, this is especially important as it carries implications for spending on future assets. This paper explores whether the differences in visible expenditures can be explained with a signaling model of status seeking. Among Black households, spending on visible consumption is found to change predictably with different reference group incomes.
Subjects: 
Conspicuous consumption
Signaling
Status
South Africa
JEL: 
D12
D83
J15
O12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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