The Rise of Niche Consumptions

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Neiman, Brent; Vavra, Joseph
• 署名单位: University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR)
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MACROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7707
• DOI: 10.1257/mac.20210263
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 224-264
• 关键词: product variety; MARKET; polarization; DYNAMICS; markups; demand; prices; TRADE; GOODS

摘要

Over the last 15 years, individual households have concentrated their spending on a few preferred products. However, this is not driven by superstar products capturing larger market shares. Instead, households increasingly purchase different products from each other. As a result, aggregate spending concentration has decreased. We develop a model of heterogeneous household demand and use it to conclude that increasing product variety drives these divergent trends. When more products are available, households select prod-ucts better matched to their tastes. This delivers welfare gains from selection equal to about half a percent per year in the categories covered by our data. (JEL D12, D91, E21, L66)