EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Choosing the Joneses: Endogenous Goals and Reference Standards

Armin Falk and Markus Knell

Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 2004, vol. 106, issue 3, 417-435

Abstract: A growing economic literature stresses the importance of relative comparisons, e.g., for savings and consumption or happiness. In this literature it is usually assumed that reference standards against which people compare themselves are exogenously given. In contrast, findings from social psychology suggest that people play an active role in determining their reference standards. We introduce a social comparison model where people choose their reference standards to serve motives of self‐improvement and self‐enhancement. The model predicts that reference standards increase in individuals’ abilities and that people thus tend to compare themselves to similar others. The results of a questionnaire study confirm the prediction of the model.

Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (185)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0347-0520.2004.00370.x

Related works:
Working Paper: Choosing the Joneses: Endogenous Goals and Reference Standards (2004) Downloads
Working Paper: Choosing the Joneses: Endogenous Goals and Reference Standards (2004) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:scandj:v:106:y:2004:i:3:p:417-435

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0347-0520

Access Statistics for this article

Scandinavian Journal of Economics is currently edited by Richard Friberg, Matti Liski and Kjetil Storesletten

More articles in Scandinavian Journal of Economics from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:bla:scandj:v:106:y:2004:i:3:p:417-435