Social status pursuit, distribution of bequests and inequality

Journal article: The quest for social status modifies lifetime decisions and as a consequence, the trajectory of the overall economy. Focusing on the relative wealth dimension of social status, we build a two-period overlapping generations model with heterogeneous agents to investigate the effects of status quest on the evolution of bequest distribution and household inequality. We show that the bequest motive and the concern for social status not only increase the stationary level of capital but also enhance the household equality.

Author(s)

Carmen Camacho, Fatih Harmankaya, Cagri Saglam

Journal
  • Economic Modelling
Date of publication
  • 2020
Keywords JEL
D30 D90 E71
Keywords
  • Reference dependent utility
  • Bequests
  • Social status
  • Household inequality
Pages
  • 183-191
Version
  • 1
Volume
  • 86