Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Working Papers in Economics,
University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

No 538: When Samuelson met Veblen abroad: National and global public good provision when social comparisons matter

Thomas Aronsson () and Olof Johansson-Stenman ()
Additional contact information
Thomas Aronsson: Umeå School of Business and Economics, Dept of Economics,, Postal: Umeå University, SE 90187 UMEÅ, Sweden
Olof Johansson-Stenman: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: P.O. Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG, Sweden

Abstract: This paper derives Pareto efficient policy rules for the provision of national as well as global public goods in a two-country world, where each individual cares about relative consumption within as well as between countries. Furthermore, we compare these policy rules with those that follow from a non-cooperative Nash equilibrium. The results show that both global and national public goods are systematically under-provided in Nash equilibrium under such relative consumption concerns.

Keywords: Public goods; relative consumption; inter-jurisdictional comparison; status; positional goods.

JEL-codes: D03; D62; H41

21 pages, September 17, 2012

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