Saving Rates and Poverty: The Role of Conspicuous Consumption and Human Capital

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Moav, Omer; Neeman, Zvika
• 署名单位: Hebrew University of Jerusalem; University of London; Royal Holloway University London; Tel Aviv University
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2012.02516.x
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 933-956
• 关键词: social-status; income-distribution; INEQUALITY; celebrations; mobility; persistence; INVESTMENT; education; selection; demand

摘要

Poor families around the world spend a large fraction of their income consuming goods that do not appear to alleviate poverty, while saving at low rates. We suggest that individuals care about economic status and interpret this behaviour as conspicuous consumption intended to provide a signal about unobserved income. We show that if human capital is observable and correlated with income, then a signalling equilibrium in which poor individuals tend to spend a large fraction of their income on conspicuous consumption can emerge. This equilibrium gives rise to an increasing marginal propensity to save that might generate a poverty trap.