关键词: 收入不平等, 社会地位寻求, 信贷约束, 地位性消费

Abstract:

The paper, based on social status seeking, makes an analysis of the impacts of income inequality upon urban family consumption. We think that, in the economic circumstance with less-developed financial market and low-level social security, the increase of income gap will force the families with middle or low income to reduce the non-positional consumption and increase the savings. An empirical study, based on the micro-tracking data of CFPS , has indicated that: 1) Such show-off consumption of the families with high social status may exert a substantial demonstration effect upon the families with middle and low social status. In addition, the higher the social status of the families, the stronger their comparative motives are. 2) Income inequality may greatly reduce consumption of the families with middle and low social status. 3) The status seeking may largely stimulate positional consumption, while the increase in income difference is more likely to restrain non-positional consumption. 4) The inhibit effect on consumption of income gap is related to credit constraints.

Key words: Income Inequality, Social Status Seeking, Credit Constraints, Positional Consumption