@TechReport{iza:izadps:dp6342, author={Akay, Alpaslan and Martinsson, Peter}, title={Positional Concerns through the Life Cycle: Evidence from Subjective Well-Being Data and Survey Experiments}, year={2012}, month={Feb}, institution={Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)}, address={Bonn}, type={IZA Discussion Paper}, number={6342}, url={https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp6342}, abstract={This paper uses both subjective well-being and survey experimental data to analyze how people's positional concerns regarding income and goods vary with age. The subjective well-being approach is mainly based on German panel data for the period 1984-2009 (German Socio-Economic Panel), while the survey experimental approach is based on a tailor-made experimental design conducted among Swedish adults. Our analysis suggests that the degree of positional concerns is not homogenous across the life cycle. Our different analytical approaches show a robust life cycle pattern of positional concerns: young people experience no or a low degree of positional concerns, yet the level of concerns for income increases gradually and significantly with age. The results also differ across goods: while car consumption is similar to income, the positional concern for leisure time decreases through the life cycle.}, keywords={subjective well-being;life cycle;positional concerns;survey experiment}, }