IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-00279019.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Waves in consumption with interdependence among consumers
[Vagues dans la consommation quand il y a interdépendance entre consommateurs]

Author

Listed:
  • Robin Cowan

    (BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - UL - Université de Lorraine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Maastricht University [Maastricht])

  • William Cowan

    (UWO - School of Computer Science [Waterloo] - University of Waterloo [Waterloo])

  • Peter Swann

    (MBS - Manchester Business School - University of Manchester [Manchester])

Abstract

In this paper we model the development of consumption when there are interactions between consumers. The consumer recognizes three reference groups: peer, distinction, and aspiration. The interplay of aspiration and distinction can lead to 'waves' in consumption; for example, the avant-garde consumption of up-market pioneers is copied by other types of consumer. As the latter aspire to emulate the former, the former seek distinction by varying their consumption. A consumption activity may start up market, then gradually descend the social spectrum. More complex patterns with continuing cycles in consumption can also be found.

Suggested Citation

  • Robin Cowan & William Cowan & Peter Swann, 2004. "Waves in consumption with interdependence among consumers [Vagues dans la consommation quand il y a interdépendance entre consommateurs]," Post-Print hal-00279019, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00279019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robin Cowan, 2006. "Waves and Cycles: Explorations in the Pure Theory of Price for Fine Art," Chapters, in: Cristiano Antonelli & Dominique Foray & Bronwyn H. Hall & W. Edward Steinmueller (ed.), New Frontiers in the Economics of Innovation and New Technology, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Joseph Farrell & Garth Saloner, 1985. "Standardization, Compatibility, and Innovation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 16(1), pages 70-83, Spring.
    3. Arthur, W Brian, 1989. "Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-In by Historical Events," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(394), pages 116-131, March.
    4. Young, H Peyton, 1993. "The Evolution of Conventions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(1), pages 57-84, January.
    5. Brock, W.A. & Durlauf, S.N., 1995. "Discrete Choice with Social Interactions I: Theory," Working papers 9521, Wisconsin Madison - Social Systems.
    6. Pesendorfer, Wolfgang, 1995. "Design Innovation and Fashion Cycles," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(4), pages 771-792, September.
    7. Bikhchandani, Sushil & Hirshleifer, David & Welch, Ivo, 1992. "A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change in Informational Cascades," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 992-1026, October.
    8. Bernheim, B Douglas, 1994. "A Theory of Conformity," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(5), pages 841-877, October.
    9. Ireland, Norman J., 1994. "On limiting the market for status signals," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 91-110, January.
    10. Steven N. Durlauf, 1993. "Nonergodic Economic Growth," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(2), pages 349-366.
    11. Robin Cowan & William Cowan, 1998. "On Clustering in the Location of R&D: Statics and Dynamics," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(2-3), pages 201-230.
    12. Alan Kirman, 1993. "Ants, Rationality, and Recruitment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(1), pages 137-156.
    13. Milton Friedman, 1957. "A Theory of the Consumption Function," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number frie57-1, March.
    14. Katz, Michael L & Shapiro, Carl, 1985. "Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 424-440, June.
    15. Bagwell, Laurie Simon & Bernheim, B Douglas, 1996. "Veblen Effects in a Theory of Conspicuous Consumption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 349-373, June.
    16. Cowan, Robin, 1991. "Tortoises and Hares: Choice among Technologies of Unknown Merit," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(407), pages 801-814, July.
    17. Gintis, Herbert, 1974. "Welfare Criteria with Endogenous Preferences: The Economics of Education," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 15(2), pages 415-430, June.
    18. Partha Dasgupta & Joseph Stiglitz, 1980. "Uncertainty, Industrial Structure, and the Speed of R&D," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 11(1), pages 1-28, Spring.
    19. Milton Friedman, 1957. "Introduction to "A Theory of the Consumption Function"," NBER Chapters, in: A Theory of the Consumption Function, pages 1-6, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. George A. Akerlof, 1997. "Social Distance and Social Decisions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(5), pages 1005-1028, September.
    21. Dockner, Engelbert J & Feichtinger, Gustav, 1993. "Cyclical Consumption Patterns and Rational Addiction," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 256-263, March.
    22. Granovetter, Mark & Soong, Roland, 1986. "Threshold models of interpersonal effects in consumer demand," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 83-99, March.
    23. Cowan, Robin & Cowan, William & Swann, Peter, 1997. "A model of demand with interactions among consumers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 711-732, October.
    24. Coelho, Philip R P & McClure, James E, 1993. "Toward an Economic Theory of Fashion," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 31(4), pages 595-608, October.
    25. An, M Y & Kiefer, N M, 1995. "Local Externalities and Societal Adoption of Technologies," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 103-117, June.
    26. Abhijit V. Banerjee, 1992. "A Simple Model of Herd Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 797-817.
    27. Feichtinger, G & Prskawetz, A & Herold, W & Zinner, P, 1995. "Habit Formation with Threshold Adjustment: Addiction May Imply Complex Dynamics," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 157-172, June.
    28. Pollak, Robert A, 1970. "Habit Formation and Dynamic Demand Functions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(4), pages 745-763, Part I Ju.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zakaria Babutsidze, 2012. "Consumer Learning through Interaction: Effects on Aggregate Outcomes," Chapters, in: Guido Buenstorf (ed.), Evolution, Organization and Economic Behavior, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Meihan He & Jongsu Lee, 2020. "Social culture and innovation diffusion: a theoretically founded agent-based model," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 1109-1149, September.
    3. Sjögren, Tomas, 2016. "Consumption Norms with Endogenous Norm Beliefs – Implications for Welfare, Commodity Taxation and Income Redistribution," Umeå Economic Studies 938, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    4. Pesaran, M. Hashem & Tosetti, Elisa, 2011. "Large panels with common factors and spatial correlation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 161(2), pages 182-202, April.
    5. Giorgio Fagiolo, 2001. "Coordination, Local Interactions and Endogenous Neighborhood Formation," LEM Papers Series 2001/15, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    6. Floortje Alkemade & Carolina Castaldi, 2005. "Strategies for the Diffusion of Innovations on Social Networks," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 25(1), pages 3-23, February.
    7. Eckerstorfer, Paul & Wendner, Ronald, 2013. "Asymmetric and non-atmospheric consumption externalities, and efficient consumption taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 42-56.
    8. Chen, Yubo & Fay, Scott & Wang, Qi, 2011. "The Role of Marketing in Social Media: How Online Consumer Reviews Evolve," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 85-94.
    9. Jungeilges, Jochen & Pavletsov, Makar & Perevalova, Tatyana, 2022. "Noise-induced behavioral change driven by transient chaos," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    10. Giulia Iori & Vassilis Koulovassilopoulos, 1999. "Patterns of consumption in socio-economic models with heterogeneous interacting agents," Papers cond-mat/9909131, arXiv.org.
    11. Zakaria Babutsidze, 2009. "Learning How to Consume and Returns to Product Promotion," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2009-05, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    12. Andrea Mannberg & Tomas Sjögren, 2022. "Social identity and risky leisure activities: implications for welfare and policy," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 59(2), pages 251-285, August.
    13. Fagiolo, Giorgio, 2005. "Endogenous neighborhood formation in a local coordination model with negative network externalities," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 29(1-2), pages 297-319, January.
    14. Zakaria Babutsidze, 2011. "Returns to product promotion when consumers are learning how to consume," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 21(5), pages 783-801, December.
    15. Babutsidze, Zakaria & Cowan, Robin, 2009. "Inertia, Interaction and Clustering in Demand," MERIT Working Papers 2009-045, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    16. Ekaterina Ekaterinchuk & Jochen Jungeilges & Tatyana Ryazanova & Iryna Sushko, 2017. "Dynamics of a minimal consumer network with uni-directional influence," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 27(5), pages 831-857, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. G.M. Peter Swann, 1999. "An Economic Analysis of Taste-A Review of Gary S. Becker: Accounting for Tastes," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 281-296.
    2. Cowan, Robin & Cowan, William & Swann, Peter, 1997. "A model of demand with interactions among consumers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 711-732, October.
    3. Ekaterina Ekaterinchuk & Jochen Jungeilges & Tatyana Ryazanova & Iryna Sushko, 2017. "Dynamics of a minimal consumer network with uni-directional influence," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 27(5), pages 831-857, November.
    4. Andrea Marchini & Chiara Riganelli & Francesco Diotallevi & Bianca Polenzani, 2021. "Label information and consumer behaviour: evidence on drinking milk sector," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-24, December.
    5. Edward L. Glaeser & Jose Scheinkman, 2000. "Non-Market Interactions," NBER Working Papers 8053, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Conlisk, John & Gong, Jyh-Chyi & Tong, Ching H., 2000. "Imitation and the dynamics of norms," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 197-213, September.
    7. Cowan, Robin & Cowan, William, 1998. "Technological Standardization with and without Borders in an Interacting Agents Model," Research Memorandum 015, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    8. Emanuela Randon, 2002. "L’analisi positiva dell’esternalità: rassegna della letteratura e nuovi spunti," Working Papers 58, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2002.
    9. A. Bassanini & G. Dosi, 1998. "Competing Technologies, International Diffusion and the Rate of Convergence to a Stable Market Structure," Working Papers ir98012, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
    10. Grinblatt, Mark & Keloharju, Matti & Ikäheimo, Seppo, 2003. "Interpersonal Effects in Consumption: Evidence from the Automobile Purchases of Neighbors," University of California at Los Angeles, Anderson Graduate School of Management qt69h2f7cv, Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA.
    11. Jungeilges, Jochen & Pavletsov, Makar & Perevalova, Tatyana, 2022. "Noise-induced behavioral change driven by transient chaos," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    12. Jacobs Martin, 2016. "Accounting for Changing Tastes: Approaches to Explaining Unstable Individual Preferences," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 67(2), pages 121-183, August.
    13. Dunia López-Pintado & Duncan J. Watts, 2008. "Social Influence, Binary Decisions and Collective Dynamics," Rationality and Society, , vol. 20(4), pages 399-443, November.
    14. Adriaan R. Soetevent, 2006. "Empirics of the Identification of Social Interactions; An Evaluation of the Approaches and Their Results," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 193-228, April.
    15. Mark Grinblatt & Matti Keloharju & Seppo Ikaheimo, 2004. "Interpersonal Effects in Consumption: Evidence from the Automobile Purchases of Neighbors," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2474, Yale School of Management, revised 31 Dec 1969.
    16. Corneo, Giacomo & Jeanne, Olivier, 1999. "Segmented communication and fashionable behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 371-385, July.
    17. den Hartigh, E. & Langerak, F. & Commandeur, H.R., 2002. "The Effects of Self-Reinforcing Mechanisms on Firm Performance," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2002-46-MKT, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    18. Xiong, Hang & Payne, Diane & Kinsella, Stephen, 2016. "Peer effects in the diffusion of innovations: Theory and simulation," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-13.
    19. Bell, Ann Maria, 2002. "Locally interdependent preferences in a general equilibrium environment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 309-333, March.
    20. Zakaria Babutsidze, 2012. "Consumer Learning through Interaction: Effects on Aggregate Outcomes," Chapters, in: Guido Buenstorf (ed.), Evolution, Organization and Economic Behavior, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Peer education; Social spectrum; Pattern; Consommation; Éducation par les pairs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00279019. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.