IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eujhet/v18y2011i3p441-464.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The neglect of comparison income: An historical perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Stavros Drakopoulos

Abstract

Theories of social comparison have a long presence in the social sciences and have provided many useful insights. In economics, the idea of comparison, aspiration or relative income belongs to this theoretical framework. The first systematic usages of this notion can be found in the works of Keynes and Duesenberry. After these works the concept was relatively ignored by orthodox theorists until its recent re-appearance, mainly in the fields of labour and macroeconomics. To the contrary, however, income comparisons continued to play a role in much of Keynesian inspired and non-mainstream economics literature. In the past few years it has made a strong comeback in the literature of job satisfaction and of the economics of happiness. This paper attempts to trace the development of the concept in the modern history of economic thought. It also discusses the main theoretical implications of adopting income comparisons and possible reasons for its relative disregard by orthodox economics.

Suggested Citation

  • Stavros Drakopoulos, 2011. "The neglect of comparison income: An historical perspective," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 441-464.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:18:y:2011:i:3:p:441-464
    DOI: 10.1080/09672560903552579
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09672560903552579
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09672560903552579?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thorstein Veblen, 1899. "Mr. Cummings's Strictures on "The Theory of the Leisure Class"," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(1), pages 106-106.
    2. Veblen, Thorstein, 1899. "The Theory of the Leisure Class," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number veblen1899.
    3. Luigino Bruni & Pier Luigi Porta (ed.), 2007. "Handbook on the Economics of Happiness," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3437.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ronald Schettkat, 2020. "Micro-Foundations of Diverging Economic Policies: Keynesian, Behavioural, Neoclassic," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 55(2), pages 105-111, March.
    2. Stavros Drakopoulos & Ioannis Katselidis, 2014. "The Development of Trade Union Theory and Mainstream Economic Methodology," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(4), pages 1133-1149, December.
    3. Drakopoulos, Stavros A. & Katselidis, Ioannis, 2021. "The Old Institutional School and Labour Market Functions and Policies," MPRA Paper 110794, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Grund, Christian & Martin, Johannes, 2012. "Monetary Reference Points of Managers: An Empirical Investigation of Status Quo Preferences and Social Comparisons," IZA Discussion Papers 7097, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Christian Grund & Johannes Martin, 2017. "Monetary Reference Points of Managers – Empirical Evidence of Status Quo Preferences and Social Comparisons," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 64(1), pages 70-87, February.
    6. Ronald Schettkat, 2018. "The Behavioral Economics of John Maynard Keynes," Schumpeter Discussion Papers sdp18007, Universitätsbibliothek Wuppertal, University Library.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stefano Bartolini & Ennio Bilancini & Francesco Sarracino, 2013. "Predicting the Trend of Well-Being in Germany: How Much Do Comparisons, Adaptation and Sociability Matter?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 169-191, November.
    2. Bilancini, Ennio & D'Alessandro, Simone, 2012. "Long-run welfare under externalities in consumption, leisure, and production: A case for happy degrowth vs. unhappy growth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 194-205.
    3. Luca Fiorito & Massimiliano Vatiero, 2011. "La posizionalità come presupposto della relazionalità; e viceversa," Department of Economics University of Siena 610, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    4. Oded Stark & Wiktor Budzinski, 2021. "A social‐psychological reconstruction of Amartya Sen’s measures of inequality and social welfare," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(4), pages 552-566, November.
    5. Truong, Yann & McColl, Rod, 2011. "Intrinsic motivations, self-esteem, and luxury goods consumption," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 555-561.
    6. Ann Mari May, 2008. "On Gender Balance in the Economics Profession," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 5(2), pages 193-198, May.
    7. Muhammad Faress Bhuiyan, 2018. "Life Satisfaction and Economic Position Relative to Neighbors: Perceptions Versus Reality," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(7), pages 1935-1964, October.
    8. Liu, Jingting, 2016. "Covered in Gold: Examining gold consumption by middle class consumers in emerging markets," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 739-747.
    9. Michalis Nikiforos, 2020. "Demand, Distribution, Productivity, Structural Change, and (Secular?) Stagnation," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_945, Levy Economics Institute.
    10. Mattauch, Linus & Hepburn, Cameron & Stern, Nicholas, 2018. "Pigou pushes preferences: decarbonisation and endogenous values," INET Oxford Working Papers 2018-16, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    11. Andreia Tolciu, 2010. "The Economics of Social Interactions: An Interdisciplinary Ground for Social Scientists?," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(3), pages 223-242, January.
    12. Joy, Annamma & Wang, Jeff Jianfeng & Chan, Tsang-Sing & Sherry, John F. & Cui, Geng, 2014. "M(Art)Worlds: Consumer Perceptions of How Luxury Brand Stores Become Art Institutions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 347-364.
    13. Pak, Tae-Young, 2023. "Relative deprivation and financial risk taking✰," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PA).
    14. Ostovan, Nima & Khalili Nasr, Arash, 2022. "The manifestation of luxury value dimensions in brand engagement in self-concept," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    15. Tiia-Lotta Pekkanen, 2021. "Institutions and Agency in the Sustainability of Day-to-Day Consumption Practices: An Institutional Ethnographic Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(2), pages 241-260, January.
    16. Brennan, Andrew John & Kalsi, Jaslin Kaur, 2015. "Elephant poaching & ivory trafficking problems in Sub-Saharan Africa: An application of O'Hara's principles of political economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 312-337.
    17. BARTOLINI Stefano & SARRACINO Francesco, 2011. "Happy for How Long? How Social Capital and GDP relate to Happiness over Time," LISER Working Paper Series 2011-60, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    18. Dieter Bögenhold, 2008. "Economics, Sociology, History: Notes on Their Loss of Unity, Their Need for Re-integration and the Current Relevance of the Controversy between Carl Menger and Gustav Schmoller," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 85-101, January.
    19. Benno Torgler & Sascha L. Schmidt & Bruno S. Frey, 2006. "The Power of Positional Concerns: A Panel Analysis," CREMA Working Paper Series 2006-19, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    20. Po‐Ting Liu & Guang‐Zhen Sun, 2005. "The International Demonstration Effect And The Domestic Division Of Labour: A Simple Model," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(4), pages 515-528, December.

    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:taf:eujhet:v:18:y:2011:i:3:p:441-464. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REJH20 .

    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.