炫耀型消费与流动人口:来自汽车按揭贷款的证据

Conspicuous Consumption and Migrants:Evidence from Auto Mortgage Loan

1899年,凡勃仑在《有闲阶级论》中首次用炫耀型消费刻画经济个体的行为。虽然这一理论对人类消费行为提供了直觉上的解释力,但囿于数据,相关的经验研究依然较少。本文利用上海某大型汽车公司提供的汽车按揭交易微观数据,实证检验了流动人口身份对炫耀型消费的影响。我们发现,流动人口的炫耀型消费支出显著高于本地居民,平均而言流动人口比本地居民的汽车消费支出高2.3%。利用参考人群平均收入与炫耀型消费行为的理论关系,本文验证了炫耀型消费的信号作用,即用来显性展示个人收入和资产等财富信息的社会地位的寻求机制。进一步的福利分析发现,炫耀型消费显著增加了流动人口的信贷负担,流动人口购置车辆的信贷负担的平均净现值比本地居民高2533.28元。此外,汽车市场的炫耀型消费还增加了高油耗车辆的购买,从而导致流动人口购置车型的百公里油耗增加,相当于每辆车寿命期间内二氧化碳排放量增加1.226吨。整体上,本文的发现对于理解流动人口消费行为、减少个人金融风险以及促进绿色消费具有明晰的现实含义。

In 1899,Veblen first used conspicuous consumption to depict the behavior of economic individuals in his The Theory of the Leisure Class.Although this theory provides an intuitive explanation for consumption behavior,limited by the data,the relevant empirical work is still rare.This paper uses a micro data of auto mortgage transaction provided by a large company in Shanghai to empirically test the impact of migrant identity on conspicuous consumption.We find that the conspicuous consumption expenditure of the migrants is significantly higher than that of local residents.On average,the automobile consumption expenditure of migrants is 2.3%higher than that of local residents.Using the theoretical relationship between the average income of reference group and conspicuous consumption behavior,this paper verifies the status signaling nature of conspicuous consumption,that is,the mechanism of seeking wealth social status by showing personal information,such as income and assets.Further welfare analysis shows that conspicuous consumption significantly increases the credit burden of the migrants,specifically,the average net present value of the credit burden of the migrants for purchasing automobile is 2533.28 yuan higher than that of the local residents.Furthermore,conspicuous consumption in the automobile market has also increased the purchase of gas guzzler,resulting in an increase in fuel consumption per 100 km of automobiles purchased by the migrants,which is equivalent to an increase of 1.226 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per vehicle during its lifetime.Overall,our findings have clear implication for understanding the consumption behavior of the migrants,reducing personal financial risk and promoting green consumption.