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Expenditure Visibility and Consumer Behavior: New Evidence

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  • Ori Heffetz

Abstract

Expenditure visibility—the extent to which a household’s spending on a consumption category is noticeable to others—is measured in three new surveys, with ~3,000 telephone and online respondents. Visibility shows little change across time (ten years) and survey methods. Four different notions, or dimensions, of visibility are measured: the noticeability of above-average spending on a category; that of below-average spending; and the positivity/negativity of impressions made by above- and below-average spending. Jointly, these visibility measures explain up to three quarters or more of the observed variation in total-expenditure elasticities across consumption categories in U.S. data. Possible theoretical explanations are explored.

Suggested Citation

  • Ori Heffetz, 2018. "Expenditure Visibility and Consumer Behavior: New Evidence," NBER Working Papers 25161, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25161
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Wagner A. Kamakura & Rex Yuxing Du, 2012. "How Economic Contractions and Expansions Affect Expenditure Patterns," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(2), pages 229-247.
    2. Hillesheim, Inga & Mechtel, Mario, 2013. "How much do others matter? Explaining positional concerns for different goods and personal characteristics," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 61-77.
    3. 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.
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    6. Friehe, Tim & Mechtel, Mario, 2014. "Conspicuous consumption and political regimes: Evidence from East and West Germany," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 62-81.
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    Cited by:

    1. 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).
    2. 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.
    3. Florian H. Schneider, 2020. "Signaling ideology through consumption," ECON - Working Papers 367, Department of Economics - University of Zurich, revised Jul 2022.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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