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UNIT FOURTEEN TEXT ONE When times get tough, people with an abundance of disposable income are inclined to keep disposing of it while the rest of us are forced to keep our thinner wallets in our pockets. With that in mind, Tobias Levkovich, Citigroups chief United States equity strategist, has created the Living Large Index, comprising stocks of businesses that cater to affluent consumers. Profits and share prices of luxury-goods makers, higher-end retailers and travel and entertainment companies should hold up even if businesses serving them suffer from difficult economic conditions, he said. The index is a new creation, but back-testing shows that building a portfolio from its component stocks would have been a far more lucrative long-term strategy than mimicking the Standard Poors 500-stock index. A $100 investment in Living Large at the end of 1995 would have grown to $1,013 by Oct. 31, compared with $252 for the S. P. No wonder the logic behind the index wins high marks from investment advisers. It certainly makes sense conceptually, said Charles L. Norton, manager of the Vice fund, which invests in companies like tobacco makers, gambling emporiums and purveyors of alcohol. Usually in a recession, people at the lower end of the food chain are hurt most and so those catering to the luxury end tend to be relatively insulated. Mr. Norton holds one index constituent, Wynn, the owner of casinos, including one in Macao that has become a popular destination for Asian gamblers. Asia is expected to be a source of tremendous growth for the gambling industry. If catering to well-heeled Americans is profitable, doing the same for wealthy people around the globe may be even more so. As economies develop, the number of rich people soars, and they have the same expensive tastes as Americans do. The next big frontier for many of these luxury retailers is emerging countries, where growth is faster and the number of affluent people is growing even faster, said Andrew Peck, man