Luxury Fever:
Money and Happiness in an Era of Excess
Robert H. Frank

Paper | 2000 | $29.95 / £20.95
Paper | March 2010 | $18.95 / £9.95
336 pp. | 6 x 9

Shopping Cart | Reviews | Table of Contents

The turn of the twenty-first century witnessed a spectacular rise in gross consumption. A new luxury fever has America in its grip--the past two decades have witnessed a spectacular and uninterrupted rise in luxury consumption. Ordinary, functional goods are no longer acceptable. Our cars have gotten larger, heavier, and far more expensive. With the super-rich setting the pace, everyone spent furiously in a desperate attempt to keep up. As cars and houses grew larger and more expensive, the costs were enormous--not only monetarily but also socially. The costs are enormous: we spend more time at work, leaving less time for family and friends, less time for exercise. Most of us have been forced to save less and spend and borrow much more.

Frank offers the first comprehensive and accessible summary of scientific evidence that our spending choices are not making us as happy and as healthy as they could. The good news is that we can do something about it. Luxury Fever boldly offers a way to curb the excess and restore the true value of money.

Robert H. Frank is the Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management and professor of economics at Cornell University, as well as an economics columnist for the New York Times. His books include The Winner-Take-All Society (with Philip Cook), What Price the Moral High Ground?, The Economic Naturalist, and Principles of Economics (with Ben Bernanke).

Reviews:

"Frank's analysis should be just as interesting to those who do not share his political position as to those who do."--Samuel Brittan, Times Literary Supplement

"The shop-till-you-drop, 'retail therapy' culture may have become more dominant in the last few years. . . . But are we really any happier for it? One person who thinks we are not is Robert Frank . . . whose new book, Luxury Fever, has been causing a bit of a stir. . . . The burst of consumerism in the U.S. . . . gives a new bite to these well-rehearsed concerns."--The Independent (London)

"Luxury Fever is an important book. . . . It's admirable that an economist makes use of the research of behavioral biologists and evolutionary psychologists to explain why consumers spend as they do."--USA Today

"One does not have to be the kind of person who complains about fat-cat City salaries to wonder whether certain wealthy people are not, on the one hand, rich beyond utility, and spending their money on things that no sane consumer needs, on the other. Robert Frank's thoughtful study of conspicuous consumption . . . has a dreadful fascination."--The Sunday Times-London

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments ix
1. Money Well Spent? 1
2. The Luxury Spending Boom 14
3. Why Now? 3
4. The Price of Luxury 45
5. Does Money Buy Happiness? 6
6. Gains That Endure 7
7. Our Forgotten Future 94
8. Excellent, Relatively Speaking 107
9. Why Context and Position Are So Important 122
10. Smart for One, Dumb for All 146
11. Understanding Conspicuous Consumption 15
12. Self Help? 17
13. Other Failed Remedies 19
14. Luxury Without Apology 20
15. Equity Versus Efficiency: The Great Trade-Off? 227
16. We Can't Afford It? 25
17. Cash on the Table 266
Endnotes 281
References 295
Index 317

Another Princeton book by Robert H. Frank:

• What Price the Moral High Ground? Ethical Dilemmas in Competitive Environments.

Subject Areas:

• Economics
• Sociology

Hardcover published in 1999 by the Free Press

Shopping Cart:

For customers in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Asia, and Australia
Paper: $18.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-14693-5

For customers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India
Paper: £9.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-14693-5

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File created: 11/11/2009

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