Death beyond the means: Funeral overspending and its government regulation around the world

Abstract

While death-related household overspending is increasingly an international phenomenon with far-reaching implications, the government responses to it vary greatly throughout the world. This article offers a model of death-related overspending, including both population and governments. The analysis of data from 118 countries empirically supports the main research argument—the decline of traditional hierarchies and simultaneous ascendance of newly-affluent urbanite class, to the backdrop of collectivist society pervaded by superstitions, increase household incentives to spend on death beyond their means. State policy response depends on both the government’s ability to control vested interests and the financial cost of an average funeral.