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Envy and Inequality

Author Info

  • 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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File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1467-9442.2012.01714.x
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Article provided by Wiley Blackwell in its journal Scandinavian Journal of Economics.

Volume (Year): 114 (2012)
Issue (Month): 3 (09)
Pages: 949-973

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Handle: RePEc:bla:scandj:v:114:y:2012:i:3:p:949-973
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-9442

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Find related papers by 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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Cited by:

  1. 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.
  2. Hassan Benchekroun & Ngo Van Long, 2016. "Status Concern and the Exploitation of Common Pool Renewable Resources," CIRANO Working Papers 2016s-11, CIRANO.
  3. Allen, Jeffrey & Chakraborty, Shankha, 2015. "Aspirations, Health and the Cost of Inequality," MPRA Paper 64087, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  4. Aronsson, Thomas & Johansson-Stenman, Olof, 2015. "Keeping up with the Joneses, the Smiths and the Tanakas: On International Tax Coordination and Social Comparisons," Working Papers in Economics 621, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
  5. Eckerstorfer, Paul & Wendner, Ronald, 2013. "Asymmetric and Non-atmospheric Consumption Externalities, and Efficient Consumption Taxation," MPRA Paper 45521, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  6. Alvarez-Cuadrado, Francisco & El-Attar, Mayssun, 2012. "Income Inequality and Saving," IZA Discussion Papers 7083, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  7. Ronald Wendner, 2011. "Ramsey, Pigou, heterogenous agents, and non-atmospheric consumption externalities," Graz Economics Papers 2012-01, University of Graz, Department of Economics.
  8. 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.
  9. Ngo Van Long & Stephanie F. McWhinnie, 2010. "The Tragedy of the Commons in a Fishery when Relative Performance Matters," School of Economics Working Papers 2010-07, University of Adelaide, School of Economics.
  10. 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.
  11. Casado, Jose Maria & Alvarez-Cuadrado, Francisco & Labeaga, Jose Maria & Sutthiphisal, Dhanoos, 2012. "Envy and habits: Panel data estimates of interdependent preferences," MERIT Working Papers 054, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).

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