Mattias Polborn’s paper “Values as Luxury Goods and Political Behavior” published in the Journal of the European Economic Association
Mattias Polborn, Vice Chair and E. Bronson Ingram Chair and Professor of Economics, has published “Values as Luxury Goods and Political Behavior” along with Benjamin Enke and Alex Wu of Harvard University in the Journal of the European Economic Association.
The article proposes a theory treating moral values (e.g., support for or opposition to abortion, the Second Amendment, environmentalism, or gay marriage) as luxury goods: Wealthier voters prioritize these values over economic policies compared to poorer voters. This theory has significant implications for understanding political behavior, which they test using survey and observational data.
You can read the article here: Values as Luxury Goods and Political Behavior | Journal of the European Economic Association | Oxford Academic