Honestly, why are you driving a BMW?Olof Johansson-Stenman () and Peter Martinsson No 141, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics Abstract: This paper proposes that people derive utility not only from goods or their attributes as in standard models, but also from their self-image as influenced by their own perception of their preferences. In a representative survey, most respondents considered their own concern for status when purchasing a car to be minor in comparison with the status concerns of others. Similarly, most individuals considered themselves to be more environmentally concerned than other people. These results are consistent with an extension of the conventional theory where an individual’s selfimage is added as an argument in the utility function.
Keywords: Status; environmental concern; self-deception; self-image; preference falsification (search for similar items in EconPapers) Published as Johansson-Stenman, Olof and Peter Martinsson, 'Honestly, why are you driving a BMW?' in Economic Behavior and Organization, 2006, pages 129-146. There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0141 Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Box 640, SE 405 30 GÖTEBORG, Sweden. Contact information at EDIRC. |
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