[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dpc/wpaper/2908.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Endogenous Fiscal Policies, Environmental Quality, and Status-Seeking Behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Phu Nguyen-Van

    (THEMA-CNRS, Université de Cergy-Pontoise, France)

  • Thi Kim Cuong Pham

    (BETA, Université de Strasbourg)

Abstract
This paper analyzes endogenous ï¬ scal policy and public decision in an endogenous growth model where agents care about social status and environmental quality. The quest for a higher status is assimilated to a preference for capital wealth. The government uses income tax to ï¬ nance infrastructure and environmental protection, and maximizes individual welfare. We ï¬ nd that accounting for preferences for social status and environmental quality may lead to an allocation of tax revenue in favor of cleanup effort to the detriment of infrastructure. It does not necessary have a negative impact on growth. Status seeking can however harm economic growth and environmental quality when its motive is important enough. Finally, we show that economic growth is consistent with environmental preservation but is not necessarily welfare-improving as in the case of absence of status-seeking behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Phu Nguyen-Van & Thi Kim Cuong Pham, 2008. "Endogenous Fiscal Policies, Environmental Quality, and Status-Seeking Behavior," Working Papers 29, Development and Policies Research Center (DEPOCEN), Vietnam.
    • Handle: RePEc:dpc:wpaper:2908
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://depocenwp.org/modules/download/index.php?id=47
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daron Acemoglu & Philippe Aghion & Leonardo Bursztyn & David Hemous, 2012. "The Environment and Directed Technical Change," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 131-166, February.
    2. Hubert Kempf & Stéphane Rossignol, 2007. "Is Inequality Harmful For The Environment In A Growing Economy?," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 53-71, March.
    3. Smith, Adam, 1759. "The Theory of Moral Sentiments," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number smith1759.
    4. Robert J. Barro, 2013. "Inflation and Economic Growth," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 14(1), pages 121-144, May.
    5. Xepapadeas, Anastasios, 2005. "Economic growth and the environment," Handbook of Environmental Economics, in: K. G. Mäler & J. R. Vincent (ed.), Handbook of Environmental Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 23, pages 1219-1271, Elsevier.
    6. Andrew E. Clark & Paul Frijters & Michael A. Shields, 2008. "Relative Income, Happiness, and Utility: An Explanation for the Easterlin Paradox and Other Puzzles," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(1), pages 95-144, March.
    7. John M. Gowdy, 2004. "The Revolution in Welfare Economics and Its Implications for Environmental Valuation and Policy," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 80(2), pages 239-257.
    8. Oswald, Andrew J, 1997. "Happiness and Economic Performance," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(445), pages 1815-1831, November.
    9. John, A & Pecchenino, R, 1994. "An Overlapping Generations Model of Growth and the Environment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(427), pages 1393-1410, November.
    10. Van Long, Ngo & Shimomura, Koji, 2004. "Relative wealth, status-seeking, and catching-up," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 529-542, April.
    11. Oded Stark, 2006. "Status Aspirations, Wealth Inequality, and Economic Growth," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 171-176, February.
    12. Kapteyn, Arie, et al, 1997. "Interdependent Preferences: An Econometric Analysis," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(6), pages 665-686, Nov.-Dec..
    13. John, A. & Pecchenino, R. & Schimmelpfennig, D. & Schreft, S., 1995. "Short-lived agents and the long-lived environment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 127-141, September.
    14. Shelton, Cameron A., 2007. "The size and composition of government expenditure," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(11-12), pages 2230-2260, December.
    15. Pham, Thi Kim Cuong, 2005. "Economic growth and status-seeking through personal wealth," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 407-427, June.
    16. Barro, Robert J, 1990. "Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 103-126, October.
    17. van den Bergh, Jeroen C. J. M. & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada & Munda, Giuseppe, 2000. "Alternative models of individual behaviour and implications for environmental policy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 43-61, January.
    18. Hirtle, Beverly, 2009. "Credit derivatives and bank credit supply," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 125-150, April.
    19. Astra Bonini, 2008. "Cross-National Variation in Individual Life Satisfaction: Effects of National Wealth, Human Development, and Environmental Conditions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 223-236, June.
    20. Clark, Andrew E. & Oswald, Andrew J., 1996. "Satisfaction and comparison income," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 359-381, September.
    21. Thi Kim Cuong Pham, 2008. "L'hypothèse d'utilité relative dans l'analyse économique :enjeux et conséquences," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 118(4), pages 541-572.
    22. Alonso-Carrera, Jaime & Caballé, Jordi & Raurich, Xavier, 2008. "Estate taxes, consumption externalities, and altruism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(7), pages 1751-1764, July.
    23. Corneo, Giacomo & Jeanne, Olivier, 2001. "On relative-wealth effects and long-run growth," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(4), pages 349-358, December.
    24. David Pearce & Charles Palmer, 2001. "Public and private spending for environmental protection: a cross-country policy analysis," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 403-456, December.
    25. Easterlin, Richard A., 1974. "Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence," MPRA Paper 111773, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    26. Veblen, Thorstein, 1899. "The Theory of the Leisure Class," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number veblen1899.
    27. Arrow, Kenneth & Bolin, Bert & Costanza, Robert & Dasgupta, Partha & Folke, Carl & Holling, C.S. & Jansson, Bengt-Owe & Levin, Simon & Mäler, Karl-Göran & Perrings, Charles & Pimentel, David, 1996. "Economic growth, carrying capacity, and the environment," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 104-110, February.
    28. Giacomo Corneo & Olivier Jeanne, 2001. "Status, the Distribution of Wealth, and Growth," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 103(2), pages 283-293, June.
    29. Mohamed Jellal & Taoufik Rajhi, 2003. "Croissance et statut social," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 113(1), pages 87-103.
    30. Tournemaine, Frederic & Tsoukis, Christopher, 2008. "Relative consumption, relative wealth and growth," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 314-316, August.
    31. Wen-ya Chang, 2006. "Relative Wealth, Consumption Taxation, and Economic Growth," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 88(2), pages 103-129, August.
    32. Fershtman, Chaim & Murphy, Kevin M & Weiss, Yoram, 1996. "Social Status, Education, and Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(1), pages 108-132, February.
    33. Hubert Kempf & Stéphane Rossignol, 2007. "Is Inequality Harmful For The Environment In A Growing Economy?," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 53-71, March.
    34. Brekke, Kjell Arne & Howarth, Richard B. & Nyborg, Karine, 2003. "Status-seeking and material affluence: evaluating the Hirsch hypothesis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 29-39, April.
    35. Yew-Kwang Ng, 2008. "Environmentally Responsible Happy Nation Index: Towards an Internationally Acceptable National Success Indicator," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 85(3), pages 425-446, February.
    36. Tournemaine, Frederic & Tsoukis, Christopher, 2010. "Gain versus pain from status and ambition: Effects on growth and inequality," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 286-294, April.
    37. Ronald Wendner, 2003. "Status, environmental externality, and optimal tax programs," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 8(5), pages 1-10.
    38. Corneo, Giacomo & Jeanne, Olivier, 1997. "Snobs, bandwagons, and the origin of social customs in consumer behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 333-347, March.
    39. Glomm, Gerhard & Ravikumar, B., 1996. "Endogenous public policy and multiple equilibria," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 653-662, April.
    40. Fiaschi, Davide, 1999. "Growth and inequality in an endogenous fiscal policy model with taxes on labor and capital," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 727-746, November.
    41. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:8:y:2003:i:5:p:1-10 is not listed on IDEAS
    42. repec:bla:scandj:v:103:y:2001:i:2:p:283-93 is not listed on IDEAS
    43. Easterlin, Richard A., 1995. "Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 35-47, June.
    44. Futagami, Koichi & Shibata, Akihisa, 1998. "Keeping one step ahead of the Joneses: Status, the distribution of wealth, and long run growth," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 109-126, July.
    45. Gerhard Glomm & B. Ravikumar, 1994. "Growth-Inequality Trade-Offs in a Model with Public Sector R&D," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 27(2), pages 484-493, May.
    46. Larry E. Jones & Rodolfo E. Manuelli, 2001. "Endogenous Policy Choice: The Case of Pollution and Growth," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 4(2), pages 369-405, July.
    47. Costanza, Robert, 1995. "Economic growth, carrying capacity, and the environment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 89-90, November.
    48. Kjell Arne Brekke & Richard B. Howarth, 2002. "Status, Growth and the Environment," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2160.
    49. Welsch, Heinz, 2009. "Implications of happiness research for environmental economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 2735-2742, September.
    50. Lau, Sau-Him Paul, 1995. "Welfare-maximizing vs. growth-maximizing shares of government investment and consumption," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(3-4), pages 351-359, March.
    51. George Economides & Apostolis Philippopoulos, 2008. "Growth enhancing policy is the means to sustain the environment," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 11(1), pages 207-219, January.
    52. Michael Rauscher, 1997. "Conspicuous consumption, economic growth, and taxation," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 66(1), pages 35-42, February.
    53. Henk Folmer & H. L. Gabel (ed.), 2000. "Principles of Environmental and Resource Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1605.
    54. Economides, George & Miaouli, Natasha, 2006. "Federal transfers, environmental policy and economic growth," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 680-699, December.
    55. Krusell, Per & Quadrini, Vincenzo & Rios-Rull, Jose-Victor, 1997. "Politico-economic equilibrium and economic growth," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 243-272, January.
    56. Magnani, Elisabetta, 2000. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve, environmental protection policy and income distribution," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 431-443, March.
    57. Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada, 2005. "Income and well-being: an empirical analysis of the comparison income effect," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(5-6), pages 997-1019, June.
    58. Ng, Yew-Kwang & Wang, Jianguo, 1993. "Relative income, aspiration, environmental quality, individual and political myopia : Why may the rat-race for material growth be welfare-reducing?," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 3-23, July.
    59. de la Croix, David, 1998. "Growth and the relativity of satisfaction," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 105-125, September.
    60. Howarth, Richard B., 1996. "Status effects and environmental externalities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 25-34, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thi Kim Cuong Pham, 2019. "Keeping up with or running away from the Joneses: the Barro model revisited," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 126(2), pages 179-192, March.
    2. Ilaski Barañano & Marta San Martín, 2015. "The Impact of Foreign Aid Linked to Infrastructure and Pollution Abatement," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 667-686, September.
    3. Zhou, Sophie Lian, 2015. "Going Green for Esteem: An Extended Uzawa-Lucas Model with Status Driven Environmentalism," Discussion Papers 206560, University of Bonn, Institute for Food and Resource Economics.
    4. Barañano Mentxaka, Ilaski & San Martín Lizarralde, Marta, 2014. "Foreign Aid Linked to Infrastructure and/or Pollution Abatement," IKERLANAK 11751, Universidad del País Vasco - Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I.
    5. Chaudhry, Azam & Tanveer, Hafsa & Naz, R., 2017. "Unique and multiple equilibria in a macroeconomic model with environmental quality: An analysis of local stability," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 206-214.
    6. Bhattacharyya, Chandril & Ranjan Gupta, Manash, 2021. "Unionised labour market, environment and endogenous growth," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 29-44.
    7. Thi Kim Cuong Pham & Phu Nguyen Van & Thanh Tam Nguyen-Huu & Thi Anh-Dao Tran & Kone Noukignon, 2019. "Subjective Well-Being and Social Comparison: A Comparative Study on Rural Thailand and Vietnam," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 129(6), pages 993-1029.
    8. Yoshihiro Hamaguchi, 2021. "Environmental policy and social status preference for education in an Uzawa–Lucas model," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(3), pages 456-468, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thi Kim Cuong PHAM, 2004. "Wealth distribution, endogenous fiscal policy and growth: status-seeking implications," Working Papers of BETA 2004-11, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    2. Thi Kim Cuong Pham, 2019. "Keeping up with or running away from the Joneses: the Barro model revisited," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 126(2), pages 179-192, March.
    3. Pham, Thi Kim Cuong, 2005. "Economic growth and status-seeking through personal wealth," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 407-427, June.
    4. Andrew E. Clark & Paul Frijters & Michael A. Shields, 2006. "Income and happiness: Evidence, explanations and economic implications," PSE Working Papers halshs-00590436, HAL.
    5. Thomas Aronsson & Sugata Ghosh & Ronald Wendner, 2023. "Positional preferences and efficiency in a dynamic economy," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 61(2), pages 311-337, August.
    6. Fisher, Walter H. & Hof, Franz X., 2005. "Status seeking in the small open economy," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 209-232, June.
    7. Tournemaine, Frederic & Tsoukis, Christopher, 2010. "Gain versus pain from status and ambition: Effects on growth and inequality," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 286-294, April.
    8. Hof, Franz X. & Prettner, Klaus, 2019. "The quest for status and R&D-based growth," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 290-307.
    9. Fisher, Walter H. & Heijdra, Ben J., 2009. "Keeping up with the ageing Joneses," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 53-64, January.
    10. Thi Kim Cuong Pham, 2012. "Status-seeking and economic growth: the Barro model revisited," Working Papers of BETA 2012-06, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    11. Wendner, Ronald, 2015. "Do positional preferences for wealth and consumption cause inter-temporal distortions?," MPRA Paper 64086, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Benno Torgler & Sascha L. Schmidt & Bruno S. Frey, 2006. "The Power of Positional Concerns: A Panel Analysis," CREMA Working Paper Series 2006-19, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    13. Caporale, Guglielmo Maria & Georgellis, Yannis & Tsitsianis, Nicholas & Yin, Ya Ping, 2009. "Income and happiness across Europe: Do reference values matter?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 42-51, February.
    14. Walter H. Fisher, 2004. "Durable Consumption As A Status Good: A Study Of Neoclassical Cases," Computing in Economics and Finance 2004 96, Society for Computational Economics.
    15. Wen-Chun Chang, 2013. "Climbing up the Social Ladders: Identity, Relative Income, and Subjective Well-being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(1), pages 513-535, August.
    16. Li, Linyang, 2018. "Financial inclusion and poverty: The role of relative income," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 165-191.
    17. Marta Aloi & Frederic Tournemaine, 2013. "Inequality, growth, and environmental quality tradeoffs in a model with human capital accumulation," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 46(3), pages 1123-1155, August.
    18. Sébastien Rouillon, 2014. "Do Social Status Seeking Behaviors Worsen the Tragedy of the Commons?," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 73-94, March.
    19. Wirl Franz & Novak Andreas J. & Hof Franz X., 2008. "Happiness due to Consumption and its Increases, Wealth and Status," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(4), pages 1-34, December.
    20. Holger Strulik, 2015. "How Status Concerns Can Make Us Rich and Happy," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82, pages 1217-1240, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Endogenous policy; endogenous growth; environmental quality; status-seeking; public expenditure; Wagner’s law;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dpc:wpaper:2908. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Doan Quang Hung (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/depocvn.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.