IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceco/v106y2023ics2214804323001003.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Keeping up with the Kardashians: Evidence from a choice experiment with a nationally representative sample

Author

Listed:
  • Gajderowicz, Tomasz
  • Kozłowski, Roman
  • Giergiczny, Marek
  • Krawczyk, Michał

Abstract

This study aims at investigating preferences regarding nominal income, standing in income distribution, and income change over time. We use a nationally representative sample and employ the Discrete Choice Experiment methodology in the random utility framework. We estimate trade-offs between the absolute income, income change over time, and relative standing in income distribution. The general finding is that the importance of relative income is greater for wealthier respondents; moreover, respondents are willing to sacrifice a large amount of their overall well-being for a constant upward trend in their earnings during their life cycle. Males are particularly sensitive to relative income: they are willing to “burn” nominal money to reach a higher status, also controlling for wealth. Our study provides evidence for the driving force behind the pursuit of wealth in more affluent countries. Despite high aggregate consumption levels, there is a concern for status as measured by relative standing in society and own income change over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Gajderowicz, Tomasz & Kozłowski, Roman & Giergiczny, Marek & Krawczyk, Michał, 2023. "Keeping up with the Kardashians: Evidence from a choice experiment with a nationally representative sample," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:106:y:2023:i:c:s2214804323001003
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2023.102074
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214804323001003
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socec.2023.102074?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Relative income; Income distribution; Income trend; Happiness; Well-being;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C9 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments
    • D3 - Microeconomics - - Distribution
    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics
    • D9 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics
    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:106:y:2023:i:c:s2214804323001003. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620175 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.