Conspicuous Consumption and Migrants: Evidence from Auto Mortgage Loan

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.