Les effets de la consommation de luxe sur la croissance économique : approches par les préférences non-homothétiques

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of luxury consumption on economic growth. However, before investigating the relationship between economic growth and luxury consumption on a demand perspective, we have to come back to the determinants of luxury consumption. Therefore, we will present some models that go beyond the concept of homotheticity and dig the gap between individual preferences and luxury consumption. On this point, we will particularly focus on the largely unknown contributions, made by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, to the consumer choice theory. These insights will then allow studying the macroeconomic relationships between consumption of luxury, innovation and growth in the presence of non-homothetic preferences. We will see how the use of hierarchical preference structures or the definition of demand elasticities specific to luxury goods enables us to study luxury consumption through standard endogenous growth models or dynamic optimization. Finally we will examine the relevance of these models. JEL Codes: O40, B41, E21, E25