| |
| author |
Laila Hanandeh
| | title |
"It's Not a Bag. It's a Birkin!" Can the Demand for Hermès Birkin Bags be Explained Through a Neoclassical Framework?
| | abstract |
Women are spending exorbitant amount of money on Birkins; purses made by French
fashion house Hermès with a starting price of 12,000 USD that goes into the hundreds of
thousands at auction. The thesis explores what motivates people to purchase such
expensive handbags using two modeling strategies: a single period expected utility model
and a dynamic continuous time utility model. The main modeling innovation is the
disaggregation of utility into three components: consumption, snob, and gambling. The
models provide some intuition with regards to the demand for Birkin bags amongst
"average" women as opposed to socialites. The rise of social media provides an
explanation on why those from lower income brackets are buying the Birkin: acquiring
snob value has become independent of the bag's consumption.
| | school |
The College of Liberal Arts, Drew University
| | degree |
B.A. (2019)
|
| advisor |
Jennifer Kohn
|
| full text | LHanandeh.pdf |
| |
