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| Author: | Falk, A. Knell, M. |
| Title: | Choosing the Joneses: endogenous goals and reference standards |
| Journal: | Scandinavian Journal of Economics
2004 : VOL. 106:3, p. 417-435 |
| Index terms: | Goals |
| Freeterms: | Happiness Reference standards |
| Language: | eng |
| 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 strandards against which people compare themselves are exogenously given. In contrast, results from social psychology suggest that people play an active role in determining their reference standards. A social comparison model where people choose their reference standards to serve motives of self-improvement and self-enhancement is introduced in this paper. The model predicts that reference standards increase in individuals' abilities and that people thus tend to compare themselves to similar others. |
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