Positional Concerns among the Poor: Does Reference Group Matter? Evidence from Survey Experiments

Alpaslan Akay (), Lisa Andersson (), Peter Martinsson and Haileselassie Medhin
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Alpaslan Akay: University of Gothenburg

No 8215, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Previous research suggests a lower degree of positional concerns among people from poor countries. Yet the evidence is limited and most often builds on the assumption that people’s reference groups are the same across all individuals. We conduct a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia that is modified to include multiplicity of reference groups. We estimate positional concerns considering various reference groups to test whether the low positional concerns found in the literature is due to misspecification of the reference groups. The results show a low degree of positional concern which is highly stable across different reference groups.

Keywords: income comparison; reference groups; experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 D60 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2014-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-ltv
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - revised version published in: Journal of African Economics, 2014, 23(5), 673-699

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Journal Article: Positional Concerns among the Poor: Does Reference Group Matter? Evidence from Survey Experiments (2014)
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