Lagging behind the Joneses: Relative Deprivation and Household Consumption in Rural China

Abstract

Based on the Chinese Family Panel Studies (CFPS) 2010–2018, this article investigates how relative deprivation influences household consumption in rural China. High-dimensional fixed-effects (HDFE), the instrumental variable (IV), and causal mediation analysis (CMA) are leveraged to estimate the causal effect and mechanisms. Results show that relative deprivation reduces survival-oriented consumption of food, development-oriented consumption of transportation, telecommunication, and education, as well as enjoyment-oriented of durable goods, and increases survival-oriented consumption of residence and development-oriented consumption of healthcare and medical services. Mechanism analysis indicates that relative deprivation decreases household consumption through the anticipated effect and increases it through a cognitive trap effect. On the whole, the anticipated effect prevails over the cognitive trap effect.

Genetic Analyses of Flower Main Traits from Two Pitayas and Their Progenies: A Cactus Plant

“…Various characteristics of the flowers of the two parents and their F1 progenies were recorded according to the Guidelines of Hylocereus descriptors [32]. Flower length, perianth width, and calyx tube width were measured using a digital vernier caliper (Shanghai Manette Industries (Group) Co., Ltd., DEGUQMNT, Shanghai, China) in the afternoon on the day when the flower will open at night.…”