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Do You Enjoy Having More Than Others? Survey Evidence of Positional Goods

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Author Info
Carlsson, Fredrik () (Department of Economics, School of Economics and Commercial Law, Göteborg University)
Johansson-Stenman, Olof (Department of Economics, School of Economics and Commercial Law, Göteborg University)
Martinsson, Peter () (Department of Economics, School of Economics and Commercial Law, Göteborg University)

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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 survey-experimental method to measure people’s perceptions of the degree to which such concerns matter, i.e. the degree of positionality. Based on a representative sample in Sweden, income and cars are found to be highly positional, on average. This is in contrast to leisure and car safety, which may even be completely non-positional.

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File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/2826
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Göteborg University, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers in Economics with number 100.

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Length: 21 pages
Date of creation: 30 May 2003
Date of revision:
Publication status: Published in Economica, 2007, pages 586-598.
Handle: RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0100

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University Box 640, SE 405 30 GÖTEBORG, Sweden
Phone: 031-773 10 00
Web page: http://www.handels.gu.se/econ/
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Related research
Keywords: Relative income; relative consumption; positional goods; survey-experimental method; marginal degree of positionality;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
C90 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - General
D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  2. Easterlin, Richard A., 1995. "Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 35-47, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Agell, Jonas & Lundborg, Per, 1995. " Theories of Pay and Unemployment: Survey Evidence from Swedish Manufacturing Firms," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 97(2), pages 295-307, June.
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  5. Gary Charness & Matthew Rabin, 2002. "Understanding Social Preferences with Simple Tests," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series 1042, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Basmann, Robert L & Molina, David J & Slottje, Daniel J, 1988. "A Note on Measuring Veblen's Theory of Conspicuous Consumption," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 70(3), pages 531-35, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Ernst Fehr & Simon Gachter, 2000. "Cooperation and Punishment in Public Goods Experiments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 980-994, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2002. "What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 402-435, June.
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  9. Frank, Robert H, 1985. "The Demand for Unobservable and Other Nonpositional Goods," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 101-16, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Charness, Gary & Grosskopf, Brit, 2001. "Relative payoffs and happiness: an experimental study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 301-328, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Cameron, Trudy Ann, 1988. "A new paradigm for valuing non-market goods using referendum data: Maximum likelihood estimation by censored logistic regression," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 355-379, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Chao, Angela & Schor, Juliet B., 1998. "Empirical tests of status consumption: Evidence from women's cosmetics," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 107-131, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  17. Ernst Fehr & Urs Fischbacher, 2002. "Why Social Preferences Matter -- The Impact of Non-Selfish Motives on Competition, Cooperation and Incentives," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(478), pages C1-C33, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Olof Johansson-Stenman & Fredrik Carlsson & Dinky Daruvala, 2002. "Measuring Future Grandparents" Preferences for Equality and Relative Standing," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(479), pages 362-383, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Pérez Truglia, Ricardo Nicolás, 2007. "Can a rise in income inequality improve welfare?," MPRA Paper 4700, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 22 Dec 2007. [Downloadable!]
  2. Akay, Alpaslan & Martinsson, Peter & Medhin, Haileselassie, 2009. "Does Positional Concern Matter in Poor Societies? Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Rural Ethiopia," IZA Discussion Papers 4354, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  3. Carlsson, Fredrik & Gupta, Gautam & Johansson-Stenman, Olof, 2005. "Keeping Up with the Vaishyas: Caste and Relative Standing," Working Papers in Economics 171, Göteborg University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  4. Aronsson, Thomas, 2007. "When the Joneses’ Consumption Hurts: Optimal Income Taxation and Public Good Provision in an OLG Model," UmeÃ¥ Economic Studies 711, Umeå University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  5. Mary C. Daly & Daniel J. Wilson, 2008. "Happiness, unhappiness, and suicide: an empirical assessment," Working Paper Series 2008-19, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Wendner, Ronald, 2008. "Externalities in a Model of Perpetual Youth with Age-Dependent Productivity," MPRA Paper 11335, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  7. Sara J. Solnick & David Hemenway, 2005. "Are Positional Concerns Stronger in Some Domains than in Others?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 147-151, May. [Downloadable!]
  8. Wendner, Ronald & Goulder, Lawrence H., 2008. "Status Effects, Public Goods Provision, and the Excess Burden," MPRA Paper 8260, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  9. Andersson, Fredrik W., 2006. "Is Concern for Relative Consumption a Function of Relative Consumption?," Working Papers in Economics 220, Göteborg University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  10. Micheletto, Luca, 2009. "Optimal nonlinear redistributive taxation and public good provision in an economy with Veblen effects," Working Paper Series 2009:3, Uppsala University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  11. Benno Torgler & Markus Schaffner & Bruno S. Frey & Sascha L. Schmidt & Uwe Dulleck, 2008. "Inequality Aversion and Performance in and on the Field," NCER Working Paper Series 36, National Centre for Econometric Research. [Downloadable!]
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