August 2009

IZA DP No. 4354: Does Positional Concern Matter in Poor Societies? Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Rural Ethiopia

revised version published in: World Development, 2012, 40 (2), 428 - 435

We investigated attitudes toward positionality among rural farmers in Northern Ethiopia, using a tailored survey experiment. On average, we found positional concerns neither in income per se nor in income from aid projects among the farmers. These results support the claim that positional concerns are positively correlated with absolute level of income of a country.