Keeping Up with “The Joneses”: Reference-Dependent Choice with Social Comparisons
研究社会比较如何影响消费和福利，发现即使少数人增强攀比也会降低整体福利，而消费成本上升反而可能提升福利；在劳动力市场中，与同事的社会比较导致不完全的劳动力市场分类，技能强但社交网络弱的工人更愿放弃收入成为“小池塘里的大鱼”。
Keeping up with “The Joneses” matters. This paper examines a model of reference-dependent choice where reference points are determined by social comparisons. An increase in the strength of social comparisons, even by only a few agents, increases consumption and decreases welfare for everyone. Strikingly, a higher marginal cost of consumption can increase welfare. In a labor market, social comparisons with coworkers create a big fish in a small pond effect, inducing incomplete labor market sorting. Further, it is the skilled workers with the weakest social networks who are induced to give up income to become the big fish.