C. Tremblay, Victor J. Tremblay
Sep 1, 1995
Citations
8
Influential Citations
19
Citations
Journal
Applied Economics Letters
Abstract
In spite of its importance to the retail sector, there has been relatively little research on the economics of Christmas Season gift-giving. The one exception is Waldfogel (1993), The Deadweight loss of Christmas, American Economic Review, 83, 1328-1336, who found a substantial amount of deadweight loss associated with Christmas gift-giving. Here it is shown that the Waldfogel study is incomplete and alternative models of consumer choice theory which better explain Christmas gift-giving are identified. Although the standard neoclassical and altruistic models predict no relationship between the population of children and per capita Christmas spending, a model is developed that includes non-pecuniary externalities and predicts that children have a positive impact on Christmas gift-giving. This prediction is supported by empirical evidence.