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Income inequality, income, and internet searches for status goods : a cross-national study of the association between inequality and well-being
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Walasek, Lukasz and Brown, G. D. A. (Gordon D. A.) (2016) Income inequality, income, and internet searches for status goods : a cross-national study of the association between inequality and well-being. Social Indicators Research, 129 (3). pp. 1001-1014. doi:10.1007/s11205-015-1158-4
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-1158-4
Abstract
Is there a positive association between a nation’s income inequality and concerns with status competition within that nation? Here we use Google Correlate and Google Trends to examine frequency of internet search terms and find that people in countries in which income inequality is high search relatively more frequently for positional brand names such as Prada, Louis Vuitton, or Chanel. This tendency is stronger among well-developed countries. We find no evidence that income alone is associated with searches for positional goods. We also present evidence that the concern with positional goods does not reflect non-linear effects of income on consumer spending, either across nations or (extending previous findings that people who live in unequal US States search more for positional goods) within the USA. It is concluded that income inequality is associated with greater concerns with positional goods, and that this concern is reflected in internet searching behaviour.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HF Commerce H Social Sciences > HM Sociology |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Income distribution -- Psychological aspects, Social status -- Psychological aspects, Consumption (Economics) -- Psychological aspects, Consumer behavior -- Psychological aspects., Internet searching | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Social Indicators Research | ||||||
| Publisher: | Springer | ||||||
| ISSN: | 0303-8300 | ||||||
| Official Date: | December 2016 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 129 | ||||||
| Number: | 3 | ||||||
| Number of Pages: | 14 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 1001-1014 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1007/s11205-015-1158-4 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access | ||||||
| Funder: | Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC), Leverhulme Trust (LT) | ||||||
| Grant number: | ES/K002201/1 (ESRC), RP2012-V-022 (LT) |
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