Consumption Network Effects

同龄人的压力会改变我们的消费和储蓄方式吗？该项目计划使用丹麦人口的大规模行政数据，再加上消费调查数据，来研究社会影响对家庭支出的重要性。我们的目标是量化消费网络效应的重要性，并理解异质性的重要性、我们估计的经济机制及其综合影响。我们考虑了三种可能的消费网络效应存在的机制：“攀比”、炫耀性消费和风险分担。我们建议进行实证检验，以区分这三种不同的机制。我们使用我们的估计来模拟在存在消费社会乘数的情况下财政政策的总体影响。该模型是通过同事和配偶形成的网络结构来识别的。

Do peer pressures change the way we consume and save? This project plans to use large scale administrative data for the population of Denmark, coupled with consumption survey data, to study the importance of social influences on household spending. Our goal is to quantify the importance of consumption network effects, and to understand the importance of heterogeneity, the economic mechanism underlying our estimates, and its aggregate implications.We consider three possible mechanisms for the presence of consumption network effects: "keeping-up-with-the-Joneses", conspicuous consumption, and risk sharing. We propose empirical tests that allow us to distinguish between these three different mechanisms. We use our estimates to simulate the aggregate impact of fiscal policies in the presence of consumption social multipliers. The model is identified using the structure of networks formed by co-workers and spouses.