Positional goods in the United States and China

Abstract

Desire for high relative standing in society has an important influence on satisfaction and on spending patterns. To explore the effect of culture and circumstances on these preferences, we administered a survey on positional concerns in the United States and in China. The two countries showed very different patterns for which goods were highly positional and which were not very positional. In the United States, the attractiveness, intelligence and education of one's child were all quite positional. Highly positional goods in China were income, own education and vacation time. These differences may be attributed to circumstances within each country.