IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/amz/wpaper/2015-03.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Income Inequality and Status-Seeking

Author

Listed:
  • Paskov, Marii
  • Gerxhani, Klarita
  • G. van de Werfhorst, Herman

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to study status-seeking, defined as pursuit for elevated social status, and how it relates to income inequality. Based on the literature suggesting that in unequal societies people are more concerned about their position in the social hierarchy, we hypothesize that people will also be more eager to attain enhanced social status in the eyes of others. To test this hypothesis we use repeated cross-sectional micro data from the European Social Survey (ESS), which was collected biannually from 2002 to 2012, and use it in combination with income inequality data from the Eurostat. With this data we can complement existing studies by focusing on both between- and within country over-time variability in income inequality and status-seeking. We find evidence of a positive relationship between income inequality and status seeking. However, the relationship appears to be non-linear and characterized by an inverted U-shape instead. Moreover, the analysis reveals that the relationship between income inequality and status-seeking is stronger among lower social status groups than those higher up in status hierarchy. These findings have implications for the literature and foster us to re-consider theoretical claims suggesting a linear relationship between income inequality and psycho-social outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Paskov, Marii & Gerxhani, Klarita & G. van de Werfhorst, Herman, 2015. "Income Inequality and Status-Seeking," INET Oxford Working Papers 2015-03, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    • Handle: RePEc:amz:wpaper:2015-03
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.inet.ox.ac.uk/files/WP3.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Salverda, Wiemer & Nolan, Brian & Checchi, Daniele & Marx, Ive & McKnight, Abigail & Toth, Istvan Gy (ed.), 2014. "Changing Inequalities in Rich Countries: Analytical and Comparative Perspectives," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199687435, Decembrie.
    2. Ganzeboom, H.B.G. & de Graaf, P.M. & Treiman, D.J. & de Leeuw, J., 1992. "A standard international socio-economic index of occupational status," WORC Paper 92.01.001/1, Tilburg University, Work and Organization Research Centre.
    3. Weiss, Yoram & Fershtman, Chaim, 1998. "Social status and economic performance:: A survey," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(3-5), pages 801-820, May.
    4. Sheryl Ball & Catherine Eckel & Philip J. Grossman & William Zame, 2001. "Status in Markets," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(1), pages 161-188.
    5. Layte, Richard & Whelan, Christopher T., 2014. "Who Feels Inferior? A Test of the Status Anxiety Hypothesis of Social Inequalities in Health," Papers WP476, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Paetzel, Fabian & Sausgruber, Rupert, 2018. "Cognitive ability and in-group bias: An experimental study," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 280-292.
    2. Andreas Nicklisch & Tobias Salz, 2008. "Reciprocity and status in a virtual field experiment," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2008_37, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    3. Mitesh Kataria & Tobias Regner, 2015. "Honestly, why are you donating money to charity? An experimental study about self-awareness in status-seeking behavior," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 79(3), pages 493-515, November.
    4. Robert Böhm & Tobias Regner, 2013. "Charitable giving among females and males: an empirical test of the competitive altruism hypothesis," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 251-267, October.
    5. Philipp Poppitz, 2019. "Can Subjective Data Improve the Measurement of Inequality? A Multidimensional Index of Economic Inequality," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 146(3), pages 511-531, December.
    6. Vincenzo Lombardo, 2021. "Social inclusion through social status and the emergence of development traps," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(4), pages 798-825, November.
    7. Liza Charroin, 2016. "The effect of sequentiality and heterogeneity in network formation games," Working Papers halshs-01368067, HAL.
    8. Emmanuelle Auriol & Régis Renault, 2008. "Status and incentives," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 39(1), pages 305-326, March.
    9. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Renault, Régis, 2000. "The Costs and Benefits of Symbolic Differentiation in the Work Place," IDEI Working Papers 101, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse, revised 2002.
    10. Ederer, Florian & Patacconi, Andrea, 2010. "Interpersonal comparison, status and ambition in organizations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 348-363, August.
    11. Dessi, Roberta & Miquel-Florensa, Josepa, 2013. "When to Pay More: Incentives, Culture and Status in Principal‐ Agent Interactions," IDEI Working Papers 781, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    12. Philipp Poppitz, 2017. "Can subjective data improve inequality measurement? A multidimensional index of economic inequality," Working Papers 446, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    13. Jürgen Fleiß, 2015. "Merit norms in the ultimatum game: an experimental study of the effect of merit on individual behavior and aggregate outcomes," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 23(2), pages 389-406, June.
    14. Duffy, John & Kornienko, Tatiana, 2010. "Does competition affect giving?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 74(1-2), pages 82-103, May.
    15. Jesper Rözer & Bram Lancee & Beate Volker, 2022. "Keeping Up or Giving Up? Income Inequality and Materialism in Europe and the United States," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 647-666, January.
    16. Simon G�chter & Arno Riedl, "undated". "Moral Property Rights in Bargaining," IEW - Working Papers 113, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    17. Daniela Del Boca & Chiara Monfardini & Sarah Grace See, 2022. "Early Childcare Duration and Student' Later Outcomes in Europe," Working Papers 2022-021, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    18. Bottazzi, Laura & Lusardi, Annamaria, 2021. "Stereotypes in financial literacy: Evidence from PISA," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    19. Cardoso, Ana Rute, 2012. "Money and rank in the labor market," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 325-328.
    20. Alain Chateauneuf & Patrick Moyes, 2005. "Lorenz non-consistent welfare and inequality measurement," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 2(2), pages 61-87, January.

    More about this item

    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:amz:wpaper:2015-03. 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: INET Oxford admin team (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inoxfuk.html .

    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.