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The Power of Positional Concerns: A Panel Analysis

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Author Info
Benno Torgler
Sascha L. Schmidt
Bruno S. Frey

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Abstract

Many studies have established that people care a great deal about their relative economic position and not solely, as standard economic theory assumes, about their absolute economic position. However, behavioral evidence is rare. This paper provides an empirical analysis on how individuals’ relative income position affects their performance. Using a unique data set for 1040 soccer players over a period of eight seasons, our analysis suggests that the larger the income differences within a team, the worse the performance of the soccer players is. The more the players are integrated in a particular social environment (their team), the more evident this negative effect is. Moreover, we find that positional effects lowering performance are stronger among high performing teams.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA) in its series CREMA Working Paper Series with number 2006-19.

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Date of creation: May 2006
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Handle: RePEc:cra:wpaper:2006-19

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Related research
Keywords: Relative income; positional concerns; envy; performance; social integration;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D00 - Microeconomics - - General - - - General
D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Recreation; Tourism

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  1. Markus Schaffner & Benno Torgler, 2008. "Meet the Joneses: An Empirical Investigation of Reference Groups in Relative Income Position Comparisons," School of Economics and Finance Discussion Papers and Working Papers Series 234, School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology, revised 17 Jun 2008. [Downloadable!]
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-29.


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