 POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SOCIAL STATUS - HAPPINESS IN TODAY’S SOCIO-ECONOMIC ORDER FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICSYearbook of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Sofia University, 2020, vol. 19, issue 1, 171-197 Abstract: This article analyzes the implications of social status comparison for the subjective wellbeing in todays market economies. It utilizes insights from behavior economics and takes into account cognitive specifics such as the availability bias, representativeness heuristic, the anchoring, framing and loss aversion. These characteristics of how humans perceive reality contribute to the negative externalities that conspicuous consumption by super stars extort on growing number of individuals. The insecurity of one's own social standing in the complex and constantly changing world, the omnipresent buyer's remorse due to the multitude of available consumption choices diminish the perceived benefits for human happiness from economic growth in consumerist societies. Keywords: social status; availability heuristic; representativeness heuristic; loss aversion; conspicuous consumption; negative status externalities; winner-take-all markets; super stars; happiness; subjective wellbeing; buyer's remorse (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sko:yrbook:v:19:y:2020:i:1:p:171-197 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Yearbook of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Sofia University from Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski - Bulgaria Contact information at EDIRC. |
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