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Fooling the eye of the beholder: deceptive status signalling among the poor in developing countries
Author(s) -
Van Kempen Luuk
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.973
Subject(s) - counterfeit , deception , consumption (sociology) , developing country , conspicuous consumption , product (mathematics) , luxury goods , business , welfare , variety (cybernetics) , economics , advertising , goods and services , marketing , commerce , computer science , psychology , sociology , economy , social psychology , political science , economic growth , law , emerging markets , artificial intelligence , market economy , social science , mathematics , finance , geometry
Poor consumers in the developing world use a variety of status signalling devices that rely on deception of the observer. A frequently used deceptive strategy is the consumption of counterfeit instead of original status‐intensive goods, mainly cheap copies of expensive brand‐name goods from developed countries. The choice for such deceptive modes of conspicuous consumption is analysed within a product characteristics approach as developed by Lancaster and compared with non‐deceptive alternatives. Under the controversial assumption that the poor care about status, it is shown that counterfeit goods embody a more ‘appropriate’ combination of status and functionality than original goods. It appears that the consumption of counterfeits potentially enhances the welfare of low‐income consumers, depending on the extent to which the eye of the relevant beholder is effectively deceived. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.