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Preferences for Status: Evidence and Economic Implications

Ori Heffetz
Cornell University - S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management

Robert H. Frank
Cornell University - Department of Economics

HANDBOOK OF SOCIAL ECONOMICS, Jess Benhabib, Alberto Bisin, Matthew Jackson, eds., Elsevier, Forthcoming
Johnson School Research Paper Series No. #05-09

Abstract:
This chapter was prepared for Elsevier's Handbook of Social Economics (edited by Jess Benhabib, Alberto Bisin, and Matthew Jackson). It brings together some of the recent empirical and experimental evidence regarding preferences for social status. While briefly reviewing evidence from different literatures that is consistent with the existence of preferences for status, we pay special attention to experimental work that attempts to study status directly by inducing it in the lab. Finally, we discuss some economic implications.

Keywords: preferences for status, positional concerns, subjective well-being, conspicuous consumption, positional externalities, relative income, status experiments

JEL Classifications: C90, D01, D1, D62, Z10, Z13

Accepted Paper Series

Date posted: July 04, 2008 ; Last revised: January 25, 2009

Suggested Citation

Heffetz, Ori and Frank, Robert H., Preferences for Status: Evidence and Economic Implications (July 2008). HANDBOOK OF SOCIAL ECONOMICS, Jess Benhabib, Alberto Bisin, Matthew Jackson, eds., Elsevier, Forthcoming; Johnson School Research Paper Series No. #05-09. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1155422

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Contact Information

Ori Heffetz (Contact Author) Cornell University - S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management ( email ) 324 Sage Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 United States 607.255.4668 (Phone) HOME PAGE: http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/faculty/profiles/heffetz/
Robert Frank Cornell University - Department of Economics ( email ) 414 Uris Hall Ithaca, NY 14853-7601 United States 607-255-8501 (Phone) 607-254-4590 (Fax)