Who sees what? Demographics and the visibility of consumer expenditures

Ori Heffetz*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

A growing body of work on social phenomena (like status, peer effects, social comparisons and fashion) rests on assumptions regarding the social observability of consumption activities. The present paper provides new empirical evidence for assessing such assumptions. We analyze data from a unique visibility survey, designed to quantify the relative " cultural" visibility of different consumer expenditures among US households. We investigate the relationship between respondents' demographics and the expenditures they perceive as visible. We discuss implications for existing and future work.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)801-818
Number of pages18
JournalJournal of Economic Psychology
Volume33
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Conspicuous consumption
  • Expenditure observability
  • Expenditure visibility
  • Survey data

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