Promoting sustainable lifestyles: a networks approach
Student name: Mr Ayush Pant
Guide: Prof Badal Mukhopadhyay
Year of completion: 2012
Host Organisation: TERI University
Abstract: While consumption has been one of the key drivers of economic growth in modern societies,
it is also responsible for global and local environmental changes. The role of promoting
sustainable consumption patterns in the developed world and elsewhere is fundamental
for achieving the long-term goal of sustainable development. From the point of view
of a consumer, an unsustainable consumption pattern would entail a particular form of
lifestyle choice and a specific spending pattern. In this paper we explore the theoretical
possibility of individuals switching to a sustainable lifestyle when preferences are socially
interdependent. The desire for adopting a ‘green lifestyle’ is driven by emulation due to
status competition. Towards this end, we utilize an endogenous game of network formation
in which agents choose who they wish to interact with in order to maximize their utility.
We show that the desire to emulate the consumption pattern of the status–driven class is
not a sufficient condition for adopting sustainable lifestyle.
