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Visibility Bias in the Transmission of Consumption Beliefs and Undersaving / Bing Han, David Hirshleifer, Johan Walden.

NBER Working papers Available online

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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Han, Bing.
Contributor:
National Bureau of Economic Research.
Hirshleifer, David.
Walden, Johan.
Series:
Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w25566.
NBER working paper series no. w25566
Language:
English
Physical Description:
1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
Place of Publication:
Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2019.
Summary:
We model visibility bias in the social transmission of consumption behavior. When consumption is more salient than non-consumption, people perceive that others are consuming heavily, and infer that future prospects are favorable. This increases aggregate consumption in a positive feedback loop. A distinctive implication is that disclosure policy interventions can ameliorate undersaving. In contrast with wealth-signaling models, information asymmetry about wealth reduces overconsumption. The model predicts that saving is influenced by social connectedness, observation biases, and demographic structure; and provides new insight into savings rates. These predictions are distinct from other common models of consumption distortions.
Notes:
Print version record
February 2019.

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