I consider how the saving behavior of consumers is affected by incomes in their reference group. Although standard life cycle models with interdependent preferences provide no clear cut prediction of how incomes in one’s reference group should influence savings, the empirical analysis points to an unambiguously negative effect: If incomes in the reference group are higher, savings are lower. Th...

This study examines the gender-differentiated effects of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) on households in Zimbabwe during 1991. Interviews and focus groups were conducted among 120 randomly selected households in Kambuzuma, a densely populated suburb of Harare with mostly Black residents with a considerable range in income. Interviews were conducted in mid-1991 and reinterviews were con...

the present article has been prepared based on two field research studies undertaken to identify the vulnerable strata in rural areas of iran’s garmsar and dasht-e azadegan regions2. as will be demonstrated below, the findings of the two studies show that the development policies implemented during recent decades--policies emphasizing strategies of structural adjustment, liberalization, and pri...

Probably since the first time one human being sought to improve the health status of another, in return for a material reward, there has been head scratching over how best to compensate the would-be-healer and how much. The fascinating paper by Quentin et al. on drug-related groups (DRGs) for acute myocardial infarctions in 11 European countries continues the quest. The most famous formal expre...

Relative Concerns of Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China As their environment changes, migrants constitute an interesting group to study the effect of relative income on subjective well-being. This paper focuses on the huge population of ruralto-urban migrants in China. Using a novel dataset, we find that the well-being of migrants depends on several reference groups: it is negatively affected by ...

This paper provides unprecedented direct evidence from large-scale survey data on both the intensity (how much?) and direction (to whom?) of income comparisons. Income comparisons are considered to be at least somewhat important by three-quarters of Europeans. They are associated with both lower levels of subjective well-being and a greater demand for income redistribution. The rich compare les...

This paper investigates the effect of horizontal corporate group (keiretsu) affiliation on effective tax rates in Japan. After controlling for variables that affect corporate income taxes, keiretsu firms have lower effective tax rates than independent firms. These findings are attributed to political power and the unique corporate governance mechanism of keiretsu groups. Furthermore, horizontal...