Conspicuous consumption and welfare in Lebanon

Abstract

We define conspicuous consumption and why people want goods. Then we try to analyze whether there is conspicuous consumption in Lebanon by comparing Lebanon’s consumption, Imports of goods and services to the countries having similar Human Development Index, then we study the luxury sector and the loans sector in the country. Finally, we test whether consumption (via income) is significantly being transformed into happiness taking into consideration the years of conflict. Last but not least, we try to propose solutions to deal with conspicuous consumption.