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Envy and Inequality

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  • Francisco Alvarez-Cuadrado
  • Ngo Van Long

Abstract

We present an overlapping generations economy populated by heterogeneous agents who care about their consumption relative to others and the bequest they leave to their offspring. In the presence of positional concerns individual saving and bequest rates vary across the income distribution. This dispersion in the rates of asset accumulation is the main channel for envy to impact the degree of intra-generational wealth inequality and its inter-generational transmission. Our results suggest that concerns for relative consumption might be an important explanatory factor for the surprisingly low levels of assets held by low-income households and the high concentration of bequests in the upper tail of the wealth distribution.
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Suggested Citation

  • Francisco Alvarez-Cuadrado & Ngo Van Long, 2012. "Envy and Inequality," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(3), pages 949-973, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:scandj:v:114:y:2012:i:3:p:949-973
    DOI: j.1467-9442.2012.01714.x
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1467-9442.2012.01714.x
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    Cited by:

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    4. Francisco Alvarez-Cuadrado & Jose Maria Casado & Jose Maria Labeaga, 2016. "Envy and Habits: Panel Data Estimates of Interdependent Preferences," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 78(4), pages 443-469, August.
    5. 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.
    6. Ronald Wendner, 2014. "Ramsey, Pigou, Heterogeneous Agents, and Nonatmospheric Consumption Externalities," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 16(3), pages 491-521, June.
    7. Facchini, Francois & Couvreur, Stéphane, 2015. "Inequality: The original economic sin of capitalism? An Evaluation of Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the twenty-first century"," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 281-287.
    8. Camacho, Carmen & Harmankaya, Fatih & Sağlam, Çağrı, 2020. "Social status pursuit, distribution of bequests and inequality," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 183-191.
    9. Mathieu-Bolh, Nathalie & Wendner, Ronald, 2020. "We are what we eat: Obesity, income, and social comparisons," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    10. 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.
    11. Borissov, Kirill & Kalk, Andrei, 2020. "Public debt, positional concerns, and wealth inequality," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 96-111.
    12. Allen, Jeffrey & Chakraborty, Shankha, 2018. "Aspirations, health and the cost of inequality," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 144-164.
    13. Benchekroun, Hassan & Long, Ngo Van, 2016. "Status concern and the exploitation of common pool renewable resources," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 70-82.
    14. Jesus Crespo Cuaresma & Jozef Kubala & Kristina Petrikova, 2018. "Does income inequality affect aggregate consumption? Revisiting the evidence," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 905-912, September.
    15. Tournemaine, Frederic & Tsoukis, Christopher, 2015. "The growth–distribution nexus in a mixed regime of education with a status motive: On the macroeconomics of the welfare state," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 235-243.
    16. Dai, Darong & Gao, Wenzheng & Tian, Guoqiang, 2020. "Relativity, mobility, and optimal nonlinear income taxation in an open economy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 57-82.
    17. Aronsson, Thomas & Johansson-Stenman, Olof, 2015. "Keeping up with the Joneses, the Smiths and the Tanakas: On international tax coordination and social comparisons," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 71-86.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation

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