Scrooges of the 21st century
Throughout the 20th century, Americans’ inflation-adjusted per capita income and per capita holiday spending grew together. But since 2000, this relationship has been severed: Spending on holiday presents has declined, even though overall retail spending has increased. In economics terms, holiday shopping at the national level has become an “inferior good” — something people spend less on as their income grows — but it’s not clear why. Gallup survey data indicates that the inflation-adjusted amount of money Americans intended to spend on holiday presents fell from about $1,300 in 1999 to about $800 after 2010.
Waldfogel, J., “Holiday Gift Giving in Retreat,” Economics Letters (forthcoming).
Treat yourself
Giving yourself a gift seems like it would be a good way to improve your emotional well-being. But a new study finds that people mistakenly believe that treating themselves to something nice is less effective when they need it most — when they’re under pressure — because they assume they’ll be less able to savor it. For example, people in an experiment who were made to feel like they were facing a time crunch that day were significantly less likely to respond to an ad for biscotti that included the phrase “create a special moment for yourself.” However, if the study subjects were put in the mindset of having less free time that day, were shown the ad with that phrase, and then were given the biscotti, eating the treat gave them an increase in...
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