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Will the Consumption Externalities' Effects in the Ramsey Model Please Stand Up?

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  • Wendner, Ronald

Abstract

This paper investigates household decisions when individual utility depends on a consumption reference level. The desire to ``keep up with the Joneses'' represents one such example. The prior literature shows that, in a Ramsey model, consumption externalities have no impact on steady state behavior, once labor supply is exogenous. In contrast, this paper argues that --- once there is (exogenous) technological change --- consumption externalities always affect steady state behavior, even if labor supply is exogenous. The nature of the effects depends on the consumption externality's impact on a household's elasticity of marginal utility of consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Wendner, Ronald, 2010. "Will the Consumption Externalities' Effects in the Ramsey Model Please Stand Up?," MPRA Paper 22905, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:22905
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Turnovsky, Stephen J. & Monteiro, Goncalo, 2007. "Consumption externalities, production externalities, and efficient capital accumulation under time non-separable preferences," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 479-504, February.
    2. Francisco Alvarez-Cuadrado & Goncalo Monteiro & Stephen J. Turnovsky, 2004. "Habit Formation, Catching Up with the Joneses, and Economic Growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 47-80, March.
    3. Bill Dupor & Wen-Fang Liu, 2003. "Jealousy and Equilibrium Overconsumption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 423-428, March.
    4. Walter Fisher & Franz Hof, 2000. "Relative consumption, economic growth, and taxation," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 72(3), pages 241-262, October.
    5. Kjell Arne Brekke & Richard B. Howarth, 2002. "Status, Growth and the Environment," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2160.
    6. Michael Rauscher, 1997. "Conspicuous consumption, economic growth, and taxation," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 66(1), pages 35-42, February.
    7. Liu, Wen-Fang & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2005. "Consumption externalities, production externalities, and long-run macroeconomic efficiency," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(5-6), pages 1097-1129, June.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Aronsson, Thomas & Johansson-Stenman, Olof, 2013. "Publicly Provided Private Goods and Optimal Taxation when Consumers Have Positional Preferences," Working Papers in Economics 558, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    2. Ghosh, Sugata & Wendner, Ronald, 2014. "Positional Preferences, Endogenous Growth, and Optimal Income- and Consumption Taxation," MPRA Paper 60337, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Johansson-Stenman, Olof & Sterner, Thomas, 2015. "Discounting and relative consumption," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 19-33.
    4. Faria, João Ricardo & McAdam, Peter, 2018. "The green golden rule: Habit and anticipation of future consumption," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 131-133.
    5. Monteiro, Goncalo & Cook, Adam & Dey, Sanjoy, 2013. "Optimal tax policy under habit formation and capital utilization," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 230-248.
    6. Schünemann, Johannes & Trimborn, Timo, 2023. "Boosting taxes for boasting about houses? Status concerns in the housing market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 120-143.
    7. Thomas Aronsson & Olof Johansson-Stenman, 2014. "When Samuelson Met Veblen Abroad: National and Global Public Good Provision when Social Comparisons Matter," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(322), pages 224-243, April.
    8. Thomas Aronsson & Olof Johansson-Stenman, 2013. "Veblen’s theory of the leisure class revisited: implications for optimal income taxation," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 41(3), pages 551-578, September.
    9. Riham Barbar & Mohanad Ismael, 2020. "Dynamic effects of consumption externalities," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 43(2), pages 725-750, December.
    10. Goncalo Monteiro & Stephen Turnovsky, 2013. "Anticipated Consumption and its Impact on Capital Accumulation and Growth: 'Forward-Looking' vs. 'Backward-Looking' Consumption Reference," CESifo Working Paper Series 4536, CESifo.
    11. Goncalo Monteiro & Stephen J. Turnovsky, 2016. "Anticipated consumption and its impact on capital accumulation and growth: “Forward-looking” versus “backward-looking” consumption reference," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 12(3), pages 203-232, September.
    12. Aronsson, Thomas & Johansson-Stenman, Olof, 2014. "Positional preferences in time and space: Optimal income taxation with dynamic social comparisons," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 1-23.
    13. Pascal Courty & Merwan Engineer, 2019. "A pure hedonic theory of utility and status: Unhappy but efficient invidious comparisons," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 21(4), pages 601-621, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consumption externality; keeping up with the Joneses; Ramsey model; intertemporal elasticity of substitution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth

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