Skip to main content
Article
The fight-or-flight response to the Joneses and inequality
Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control
  • Richard C. Barnett, Drexel University
  • Joydeep Bhattacharya, Iowa State University
  • Helle Bunzel, Iowa State University
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Submitted Manuscript
Publication Date
4-1-2019
DOI
10.1016/j.jedc.2019.01.003
Abstract

This paper studies the fight-or-flight ambivalence people show towards the success of the proverbial Joneses. If an agent cares about leisure and his consumption relative to a benchmark set by the Joneses, his preferences display the keeping-up-with-the-Joneses (KUJ) property if an increase in the benchmark urges him to substitute away from leisure into work, allowing him to finance more consumption; the opposite is labeled running-away-from-the-Joneses (RAJ). The long literature, thus far, finds a) if any agent's behavior displays KUJ (or RAJ), everyone's will, or b) if an agent displays KUJ (or RAJ) in one portion of the consumption space, so will he everywhere. In an otherwise-standard environment with endowment heterogeneity, we provide conditions under which different agents sharing the same underlying preferences may endogenously respond very differently to the Joneses: while some may choose to keep up, others, possibly their close neighbors, may choose to run away. These choices themselves shape the income distribution, which in turn, determine the identity and fate of the Joneses. The analysis is novel because a) such fight-or-flight conflict does not arise in existing models of consumption externalities, and b) it identifies an endogenous mechanism that may dampen or amplify market income inequality arising from innate heterogeneity.

Comments

This is a working paper of an article published as Barnett, Richard C., Joydeep Bhattacharya, and Helle Bunzel. "The fight-or-flight response to the Joneses and inequality." Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 101 (2019): 187-210. doi:10.1016/j.jedc.2019.01.003. Posted with permission.

Copyright Owner
Elsevier B.V.
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
Richard C. Barnett, Joydeep Bhattacharya and Helle Bunzel. "The fight-or-flight response to the Joneses and inequality" Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control Vol. 101 (2019) p. 187 - 210
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/joydeep_bhattacharya/81/