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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

    as
    1. Kjell Arne Brekke & Richard B. Howarth, 2002. "Status, Growth and the Environment," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2160.
    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. Walter Fisher & Franz Hof, 2000. "Relative consumption, economic growth, and taxation," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 72(3), pages 241-262, October.
    4. Michael Rauscher, 1997. "Conspicuous consumption, economic growth, and taxation," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 66(1), pages 35-42, February.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Bill Dupor & Wen-Fang Liu, 2003. "Jealousy and Equilibrium Overconsumption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 423-428, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Johansson-Stenman, Olof & Sterner, Thomas, 2015. "Discounting and relative consumption," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 19-33.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Ghosh, Sugata & Wendner, Ronald, 2014. "Positional Preferences, Endogenous Growth, and Optimal Income- and Consumption Taxation," MPRA Paper 60337, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    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. repec:grz:wpaper:2014-09 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. 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.

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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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