Subjective well-being in rural India: The curse of conspicuous consumption
Publication year
2011Number of pages
16 p.
Source
Social Indicators Research, 101, 2, (2011), pp. 57-72ISSN
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor

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Organization
SW OZ RSCR CAOS
SW OZ RSCR SOC
Journal title
Social Indicators Research
Volume
vol. 101
Issue
iss. 2
Languages used
English (eng)
Page start
p. 57
Page end
p. 72
Subject
Anthropology and Development Studies; Inequality, cohesion and modernization; Ongelijkheid, cohesie en moderniseringAbstract
Using data on 697 individuals from 375 rural low income households in India, we test expectations on the effects of relative income and conspicuous consumption on subjective well-being. The results of the multi-level regression analyses show that individuals who spent more on conspicuous consumption report lower levels of subjective well-being. Surprisingly an individual’s relative income position does not affect feelings of well-being. Motivated by positional concerns, people do not passively accept their relative rank but instead consume conspicuous goods to keep up with the Joneses. Conspicuous consumption always comes at the account of the consumption of basic needs. Our analyses point at a positional treadmill effect of the consumption of status goods.
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