IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bde/journl/y2018i3daan4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of the social environment in household consumption decisions in Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Jose María Casado

Abstract

This article analyses the relationship between household consumption and that in their social environment, defined as those households that live in nearby geographical areas. The results, drawn from the Spanish Household Expenditure Survey, reveal that, on average, approximately one-third of the non-durable goods consumption of the average Spanish household is influenced to some extent by the decisions of its peer group, a magnitude that is in line with the evidence available for other countries. The influence of the social environment appears to be greater for certain specific goods, such as tobacco, clothing, leisure activities and alcohol. This analysis may help us understand how specific shocks, which initially have a direct bearing only on the expenditure of very specific population groups, ultimately affect the consumption of other, broader population groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Jose María Casado, 2018. "The role of the social environment in household consumption decisions in Spain," Economic Bulletin, Banco de España, issue MAR.
    • Handle: RePEc:bde:journl:y:2018:i:3:d:aa:n:4
    Note: Analytical Articles
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bde.es/f/webbde/SES/Secciones/Publicaciones/InformesBoletinesRevistas/ArticulosAnaliticos/2018/T1/Files/beaa1801-art4e.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kerwin Kofi Charles & Erik Hurst & Nikolai Roussanov, 2009. "Conspicuous Consumption and Race," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(2), pages 425-467.
    2. Charles F. Manski, 1993. "Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(3), pages 531-542.
    3. Giacomo De Giorgi & Anders Frederiksen & Luigi Pistaferri, 2020. "Consumption Network Effects," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(1), pages 130-163.
    4. José Casado, 2011. "From income to consumption: measuring households partial insurance," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 471-495, April.
    5. Peter Kuhn & Peter Kooreman & Adriaan Soetevent & Arie Kapteyn, 2011. "The Effects of Lottery Prizes on Winners and Their Neighbors: Evidence from the Dutch Postcode Lottery," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 2226-2247, August.
    6. Ori Heffetz, 2011. "A Test of Conspicuous Consumption: Visibility and Income Elasticities," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(4), pages 1101-1117, November.
    7. Jürgen Maurer & André Meier, 2008. "Smooth it Like the ‘Joneses’? Estimating Peer‐Group Effects in Intertemporal Consumption Choice," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(527), pages 454-476, March.
    8. Deaton, Angus, 1992. "Understanding Consumption," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198288244.
    9. Jürgen Maurer & André Meier, 2008. "Smooth it Like the “Joneses?†Estimating Peer-Group Effects in Intertemporal Consumption Choice," MEA discussion paper series 08167, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    10. Harald Uhlig & Lars Ljungqvist, 2000. "Tax Policy and Aggregate Demand Management under Catching Up with the Joneses," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(3), pages 356-366, June.
    11. Quintana-Domeque Climent & Turino Francesco, 2016. "Relative Concerns on Visible Consumption: A Source of Economic Distortions," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 33-45, January.
    12. Marta Martínez Matute & Alberto Urtasun, 2017. "The recovery of private consumption in Spain by product type and household," Economic Bulletin, Banco de España, issue JUN.
    13. José María Casado & José Antonio Cuenca, 2015. "La recuperación del consumo en la UEM," Boletín Económico, Banco de España, issue NOV, pages 37-45, Noviembre.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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.
    2. Quintana-Domeque, Climent & Wohlfart, Johannes, 2016. "“Relative concerns for consumption at the top”: An intertemporal analysis for the UK," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 172-194.
    3. Arthur Lewbel & Samuel Norris & Krishna Pendakur & Xi Qu, 2022. "Consumption peer effects and utility needs in India," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(3), pages 1257-1295, July.
    4. Guillermo Alves & Martín Leites & Gonzalo Salas, 2022. "See it to believe it. Experimental evidence on status good consumption among the youth," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 22-12, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    5. Coibion, Olivier & Gorodnichenko, Yuriy & Kudlyak, Marianna & Mondragon, John, 2014. "Does Greater Inequality Lead to More Household Borrowing? New Evidence from Household Data," IZA Discussion Papers 7910, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Banuri, Sheheryar & Nguyen, Ha, 2023. "Borrowing to keep up (with the Joneses): Inequality, debt, and conspicuous consumption," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 222-242.
    7. Giacomo De Giorgi & Anders Frederiksen & Luigi Pistaferri, 2020. "Consumption Network Effects," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(1), pages 130-163.
    8. Alvarez-Cuadrado, Francisco & Japaridze, Irakli, 2017. "Trickle-down consumption, financial deregulation, inequality, and indebtedness," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 1-26.
    9. Michalis Nikiforos, 2015. "A Nonbehavioral Theory of Saving," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_844, Levy Economics Institute.
    10. 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.
    11. Ghiglino,C. & Langtry, A., 2023. "Status Substitution and Conspicuous Consumption," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2324, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    12. Bramoullé, Y. & Ghiglino, C., 2024. "Status Consumption in Networks: A Reference Dependent Approach," Janeway Institute Working Papers 2409, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    13. Yazeed Abdul Mumin & Awudu Abdulai, 2022. "Social networks, adoption of improved variety and household welfare: evidence from Ghana," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 49(1), pages 1-32.
    14. Alastair Langtry & Christian Ghinglino, 2023. "Status substitution and conspicuous consumption," Papers 2303.07008, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2024.
    15. König, Tobias & Lausen, Tobias, 2016. "Relative consumption preferences and public provision of private goods," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Market Behavior SP II 2016-213, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    16. Leites, Martín & Rivero, Analía & Salas, Gonzalo, 2024. "The positionality of goods and the positional concern’s origin," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    17. Li, Linyang, 2018. "Financial inclusion and poverty: The role of relative income," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 165-191.
    18. Dimitris Georgarakos & Michael Haliassos & Giacomo Pasini, 2014. "Household Debt and Social Interactions," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(5), pages 1404-1433.
    19. Jürgen Maurer & André Meier, 2008. "Smooth it Like the ‘Joneses’? Estimating Peer‐Group Effects in Intertemporal Consumption Choice," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(527), pages 454-476, March.
    20. Bing Han & David Hirshleifer & Johan Walden, 2023. "Visibility Bias in the Transmission of Consumption Beliefs and Undersaving," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(3), pages 1647-1704, June.

    More about this item

    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:bde:journl:y:2018:i:3:d:aa:n:4. 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: Ángel Rodríguez. Electronic Dissemination of Information Unit. Research Department. Banco de España (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bdegves.html .

    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.