Positional concerns through the life-cycle

We use survey experimental data to analyze how people's positional concerns regarding income, car consumption and working hours vary with age. Our analysis suggests that the degree of positional concerns is not homogenous across the life-cycle. Our experimental approach shows a robust life-cycle pattern of positional concerns: young people experience a low degree of positional concerns, yet the level of concern for income increases gradually with age. The results also differ across goods. While the degree of positional concerns towards the income and car consumption is increasing, it is decreasing for working hours (leisure time) through the life-cycle with a non-monotonic pattern.