View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Scholarworks@UTRGV Univ. of Texas RioGrande Valley University of Texas Rio Grande Valley ScholarWorks @ UTRGV Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations College of Liberal Arts 6-2016 Conspicuous consumption among Hispanics: Evidence from the Consumer Expenditure Survey Igor Ryabov The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/soc_fac Part of the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Ryabov, Igor, "Conspicuous consumption among Hispanics: Evidence from the Consumer Expenditure Survey" (2016). Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations. 11. https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/soc_fac/11 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts at ScholarWorks @ UTRGV. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ UTRGV. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. Conspicuous Consumption among Hispanics: Evidence from the Consumer Expenditure Survey Abstract Ethnic disparities in consumption patterns (clothing, jewelry, cars, etc.) have been a focus of social research for decades, yet little attention has been paid to conspicuous consumption and the relative importance of ethnicity and social class as its determinants. In an attempt to fill in this gap and to deconstruct the monolithic category of Hispanic consumers, the present study used nationally-representative data from the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) to investigate the expenditure patterns of Hispanic consumer households, with a special focus on conspicuous consumption. On the theoretical plane, this study evaluated two alternative explanations of the propensity to consume conspicuous items among ethnic minority households – conspicuous consumption and compensatory consumption theories.