The Rise of Niche Consumption
American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics
vol. 15,
no. 3, July 2023
(pp. 224-64)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
Over the last 15 years, individual households have concentrated their spending on a few preferred products. However, this is not driven by "superstar" products capturing larger market shares. Instead, households increasingly purchase different products from each other. As a result, aggregate spending concentration has decreased. We develop a model of heterogeneous household demand and use it to conclude that increasing product variety drives these divergent trends. When more products are available, households select products better matched to their tastes. This delivers welfare gains from selection equal to about half a percent per year in the categories covered by our data.Citation
Neiman, Brent, and Joseph Vavra. 2023. "The Rise of Niche Consumption." American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 15 (3): 224-64. DOI: 10.1257/mac.20210263Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
- E21 Macroeconomics: Consumption; Saving; Wealth
- L66 Food; Beverages; Cosmetics; Tobacco; Wine and Spirits
There are no comments for this article.
Login to Comment