Gambling to leapfrog in status? (vol 15, pg 1291, 2017)

This paper tests our theoretical prediction that households with positional concerns use gambling to attempt leapfrogging in the social hierarchy. We rely on household data that is representative for Germany and proxy the households' positional concerns by their expenditures for conspicuous consumption. Our empirical results strongly indicate that households who care about status are not only more likely to participate in gambling but also to invest more in gambling.