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Article
Choosing to keep up with the Joneses and income inequality
Economics Working Papers (2002–2016)
  • Richard C. Barnett, Villanova University
  • Joydeep Bhattacharya, Iowa State University
  • Helle Bunzel, Iowa State University
Document Type
Working Paper
Publication Date
7-29-2009
Working Paper Number
WP #08003, January 2008; Old working paper #12862
Abstract

We study a variant of the conventional keeping-up-with-the-Joneses setup in which heterogeneous-ability agents care both about consumption and leisure and receive an utility premium if their consumption exceeds that of the Joneses'. Unlike the conventional setup in which all agents are assumed to want to participate in the rat race of staying ahead of the Joneses, our formulation explicitly permits the option to drop out. Mean-preserving changes in the spread of the underlying ability distribution, via its effect on the economy-wide composition of rat-race participants and drop-outs, have important consequences for induced distributions of leisure and income, consequences that are unobtainable using conventional keeping-up preferences.

Disciplines
File Format
application/pdf
Length
41 pages
File Function
Originally pulished as WP #08003, January 2008; This version July 29, 2009.
Citation Information
Richard C. Barnett, Joydeep Bhattacharya and Helle Bunzel. "Choosing to keep up with the Joneses and income inequality" (2009)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/helle-bunzel/6/