Working Papers in Economics,
University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: Survey data is used to investigate how birth order and having siblings affect positional concerns in terms of success at work and of income. We find that only-children are the most concerned with relative position, but that number of siblings increases the concern among those who grew up together with siblings. Furthermore, people whose parents often compared them with their siblings have stronger positional concerns in general. We find differences depending on whether the issue is relative income or relative successfulness, and that people generally have stronger positional concern in relation to friends, but less so in relation to parents and least in relation to siblings. We also find that younger respondents are far more concerned with relative position than older in all studied situations.

Keywords: birth order; positional concern; only child; relative income; siblings

JEL-codes: D31; D63

29 pages, April 18, 2008

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Published as

Elina Lampi and Katarina Nordblom, (2010), 'Money and Success –Sibling and Birth-Order Effects on Positional Concerns', Journal of Economic Psychology, vol 31, no 1, pages 131-142

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