The two sides of envy
Tóm tắt
The two sides of envy, destructive and constructive, give rise to qualitatively different equilibria, depending on the economic, institutional, and cultural environment. If investment opportunities are scarce, inequality is high, property rights are not secure, and social comparisons are strong, society is likely to be in the “fear equilibrium,” in which better endowed agents underinvest in order to avoid destructive envy of the relatively poor. Otherwise, the standard “keeping up with the Joneses” competition arises, and envy is satisfied through suboptimally high efforts. Economic growth expands the production possibilities frontier and triggers an endogenous transition from one equilibrium to the other causing a qualitative shift in the relationship between envy and economic performance: envy-avoidance behavior with its adverse effect on investment paves the way to creative emulation. From a welfare perspective, better institutions and wealth redistribution that move the society away from the low-output fear equilibrium need not be Pareto improving in the short run, as they unleash the negative consumption externality. In the long run, such policies contribute to an increase in social welfare due to enhanced productivity growth.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Aghion, P., Caroli, E., & García-Peñalosa, C. (1999). Inequality and economic growth: The perspective of the new growth theories. Journal of Economic Literature, 37(4), 1615–1660.
Banerjee, A. (1990). Envy. In B. Dutta, S. Gangopadhyay, D. Ray, & D. Mookherjee (Eds.), Economic theory and policy: Essays in honour of Dipak Banerjee (pp. 91–111). New York: Oxford University Press.
Barnett, R. C., Bhattacharya, J., & Bunzel, H. (2010). Choosing to keep up with the Joneses and income inequality. Economic Theory, 45(3), 469–496.
Belk, R. W. (1995). Collecting in a consumer society. London: Routledge.
Benhabib, J., Bisin, A., & Jackson, M. (Eds.). (2011). Handbook of social economics (Vol. 1A). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Boskin, M. J., & Sheshinski, E. (1978). Optimal redistributive taxation when individual welfare depends upon relative income. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 92(4), 589–601.
Bowles, S., & Park, Y. (2005). Emulation, inequality, and work hours: Was Thorsten Veblen right? Economic Journal, 115(507), F397–F412.
Cancian, F. (1965). Economics and prestige in a Maya community. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Card, D., Mas, A., Moretti, E., & Saez, E. (2012). Inequality at work: The effect of peer salaries on job satisfaction. American Economic Review, 102(6), 2981–3003.
Carroll, C. D., Overland, J. R., & Weil, D. N. (1997). Comparison utility in a growth model. Journal of Economic Growth, 2(4), 339–367.
Clanton, G. (2006). Jealousy and envy, Chapter 18. In J. E. Stets & J. H. Turner (Eds.), Handbook of the sociology of emotions (pp. 410–442). Berlin: Springer.
Clark, A. E., & Senik, C. (2010). Who compares to whom? The anatomy of income comparisons in Europe. Economic Journal, 120(544), 573–594.
Clark, A. E., Frijters, P., & Shields, M. (2008). Relative income, happiness and utility: An explanation for the Easterlin Paradox and other puzzles. Journal of Economic Literature, 46(1), 95–144.
Clark, A. E., & Oswald, A. J. (1998). Comparison-concave utility and following behaviour in social and economic settings. Journal of Public Economics, 70(1), 133–155.
Corneo, G., & Jeanne, O. (1998). Social organization, status, and savings behavior. Journal of Public Economics, 70(1), 37–51.
Cozzi, G. (2004). Rat race, redistribution, and growth. Review of Economic Dynamics, 7(4), 900–915.
D’Arms, J., & Kerr, A. D. (2008). Envy in the philosophical tradition, Chapter 3. In R. H. Smith (Ed.), Envy: Theory and research (pp. 39–59). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Demsetz, H. (1967). Toward a theory of property rights. American Economic Review, 57(2), 347–359.
Doepke, M., & Zilibotti, F. (2008). Occupational choice and the spirit of capitalism. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123(2), 747–793.
Dow, J. (1981). The image of limited production: Envy and the domestic mode of production in peasant society. Human Organization, 40(4), 360–363.
Dupor, B., & Liu, W.-F. (2003). Jealousy and equilibrium overconsumption. American Economic Review, 93(1), 423–428.
Elster, J. (1991). Envy in social life, Chapter 3. In R. J. Zeckhauser (Ed.), Strategy and choice (pp. 49–82). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Falk, A., & Knell, M. (2004). Choosing the Joneses: Endogenous goals and reference standards. Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 106(3), 417–435.
Fernández de la Mora, G. (1987). Egalitarian envy: The political foundations of social justice. New York: Paragon House Publishers.
Fernández, R. (2011). Does culture matter?, Chapter 11. In J. Benhabib, A. Bisin, & M. Jackson (Eds.), Handbook of social economics (Vol. 1A, pp. 481–510). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Fliessbach, K., Weber, B., Trautner, P., Dohmen, T., Sunde, U., Elger, C. E., et al. (2007). Social comparison affects reward-related brain activity in the human ventral striatum. Science, 318(5854), 1305–1308.
Foster, G. (1972). The anatomy of envy: A study in symbolic behavior. Current Anthropology, 13(2), 165–202.
Foster, G. (1979). Tzintzuntzan: Mexican peasants in a changing world. New York: Elsevier.
Frank, R. H. (1985). The demand for unobservable and other nonpositional goods. American Economic Review, 75(1), 101–116.
Frank, R. H. (2007). Falling behind: How rising inequality harms the middle class. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Frank, R. H., & Heffetz, O. (2011). Preferences for status: Evidence and economic implications, Chapter 3. In J. Benhabib, A. Bisin, & M. Jackson (Eds.), Handbook of social economics (Vol. 1A, pp. 69–91). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Galor, O., & Michalopoulos, S. (2012). Evolution and the growth process: Natural selection of entrepreneurial traits. Journal of Economic Theory, 147(2), 759–780.
Gershman, B. (2012). Economic development, institutions, and culture through the lens of envy. PhD dissertation, Brown University.
Gershman, B. (2014). The economic origins of the evil eye belief. Working Paper, American University.
Graham, C. (2010). Happiness around the world: The paradox of happy peasants and miserable millionaires. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Grossman, H. I., & Kim, M. (1995). Swords or plowshares? A theory of the security of claims to property. Journal of Political Economy, 103(6), 1275–1288.
Grossman, H. I., & Kim, M. (1996). Predation and production, Chapter 4. In M. R. Garfinkel & S. Skaperdas (Eds.), The political economy of conflict and appropriation (pp. 57–72). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Hopkins, E. (2008). Inequality, happiness and relative concerns: What actually is their relationship? Journal of Economic Inequality, 6(4), 351–372.
Hopkins, E., & Kornienko, T. (2004). Running to keep in the same place: Consumer choice as a game of status. American Economic Review, 94(4), 1085–1107.
Knell, M. (1999). Social comparisons, inequality, and growth. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 155(4), 664–695.
Ljungqvist, L., & Uhlig, H. (2000). Tax policy and aggregate demand management under catching up with the Joneses. American Economic Review, 90(3), 356–366.
Luttmer, E. F. (2005). Neighbors as negatives: Relative earnings and well-being. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 120(3), 963–1002.
Matt, S. J. (2003). Keeping up with the Joneses: Envy in American consumer society, 1890–1930. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Mitsopoulos, M. (2009). Envy, institutions and growth. Bulletin of Economic Research, 61(3), 201–222.
Moav, O., & Neeman, Z. (2012). Saving rates and poverty: The role of conspicuous consumption and human capital. Economic Journal, 122(563), 933–956.
Mui, V.-L. (1995). The economics of envy. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 26(3), 311–336.
Nash, J. (1970). In the eyes of the ancestors: Belief and behavior in a Maya community. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Neumark, D., & Postlewaite, A. (1998). Relative income concerns and the rise in married women’s employment. Journal of Public Economics, 70(1), 157–183.
Oswald, A. J. (1983). Altruism, jealousy and the theory of optimal non-linear taxation. Journal of Public Economics, 20(1), 77–87.
Park, Y. (2010). The second paycheck to keep up with the Joneses: Relative income concerns and labor market decisions of married women. Eastern Economic Journal, 36(2), 255–276.
Pérez-Asenjo, E. (2011). If happiness is relative, against whom do we compare ourselves? Implications for labour supply. Journal of Population Economics, 24(4), 1411–1442.
Platteau, J.-P. (2000). Institutions, social norms, and economic development. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers.
Robson, A. J., & Samuelson, L. (2011). The evolutionary foundations of preferences, Chapter 7. In J. Benhabib, A. Bisin, & M. Jackson (Eds.), Handbook of social economics (Vol. 1A, pp. 221–310). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Rustichini, A. (2008). Dominance and competition. Journal of the European Economic Association, 6(2–3), 647–656.
Schoeck, H. (1969). Envy: A theory of social behavior. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World.
Schor, J. B. (1991). The overworked American: The unexpected decline of leisure. New York: Basic Books.
Scott, J. C. (1976). The moral economy of the peasant: Rebellion and subsistence in Southeast Asia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Smith, R. H., & Kim, S. H. (2007). Comprehending envy. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 46–64.
Solnick, S. J., & Hemenway, D. (2005). Are positional concerns stronger in some domains than in others? American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 95(2), 147–151.
van de Ven, N., Zeelenberg, M., & Pieters, R. (2009). Leveling up and down: The experiences of benign and malicious envy. Emotion, 9(3), 419–429.
Veblen, T. B. (1891). Some neglected points in the theory of socialism. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2(3), 57–74.
Wolf, E. R. (1955). Types of Latin American peasantry: A preliminary discussion. American Anthropologist, 57(3, Part 1), 452–471.
Zizzo, D. J. (2003). Money burning and rank egalitarianism with random dictators. Economics Letters, 81(2), 263–266.
Zizzo, D. J. (2008). The cognitive and behavioral economics of envy, Chapter 11. In R. H. Smith (Ed.), Envy: Theory and research (pp. 190–210). Oxford: Oxford University Press.