Do You Enjoy Having More than Others? Survey Evidence of Positional Goods
13 Pages Posted: 22 Oct 2007
Abstract
Although conventional economic theory proposes that only the absolute levels of income and consumption matter for people's utility, there is much evidence that relative concerns are often important. This paper uses a choice experiment to measure people's perceptions of the degree to which such concerns matter, i.e. the degree of positionality. Based on a random sample in Sweden, income and cars are found to be highly positional, on average, in contrast to leisure and car safety. Leisure may even be completely non-positional. Potential policy implications are discussed.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Comparison Utility in a Growth Model
By Christopher D. Carroll, Jody R. Overland, ...
-
Valuing Public Goods: The Life Satisfaction Approach
By Bruno S. Frey, Simon Luechinger, ...
-
Valuing Public Goods: The Life Satisfaction Approach
By Alois Stutzer, Simon Luechinger, ...
-
Optimal Taxation When Consumers Have Endogenous Benchmark Levels of Consumption
-
Frustrated Achievers: Winners, Losers, and Subjective Well Being in New Market Economies
By Carol Graham and Stefano Pettinato
-
Optimal Taxation When Consumers Have Benchmark Levels of Consumption