Conformism and Wealth Distribution

Kazuo Mino and Yasuhiro Nakamoto ()

No 901, KIER Working Papers from Kyoto University, Institute of Economic Research

Abstract: This paper explores the role of consumption externalities in a neoclassical growth model in which households have heterogeneous preferences. We fi?nd that the degree of conformism in consumption held by each household signifi?cantly affects the speed of convergence of the aggregate economy as well as the patterns of wealth distribution in the steady state equilibrium. In particular, a higher degree of consumption conformism accelerates the convergence speed of the economy towards the steady state. We also reveal that in an economy with a high degree of conformism, the pattern of initial distribution of wealth tends not to be sustained in the long run.

Keywords: consumption externalities; heterogeneous agents; wealth distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 E13 E21 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35pages
Date: 2014-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge, nep-gro and nep-mac
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kyo:wpaper:901

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