IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/ubzefd/340795.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The modification of social space as a tool for lowering social stress

Author

Listed:
  • Stark, Oded

Abstract

The social stress experienced by an individual from having a low relative income or from having a low income-based rank is a derivative of the individual’s location in social space, and is the outcome of unfavorable comparisons with other individuals in that space. (The term social space stands for the set of individuals with whose incomes or with whose income-based ranks the individual compares his income or his income-based rank.) The stress that arises from unfavorable social comparisons can cause physical and mental harm. Essentially, there are three ways to thwart unfavorable income-related comparisons experienced by an individual: to operate on the individual’s income or on a characteristic (an attribute) of the individual’s income; to operate on the incomes or on a characteristic of the incomes of the individual’s comparators; or to modify the individual’s social space. The first two approaches feature extensively in the existing literature. The third does not. In this communication, I analyze this third approach, keeping in mind its application as a policy tool for lowering social stress.

Suggested Citation

  • Stark, Oded, 2024. "The modification of social space as a tool for lowering social stress," Discussion Papers 340795, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ubzefd:340795
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.340795
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/340795/files/341_The%20modification%20of%20social%20space.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.340795?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stark, Oded & Bielawski, Jakub & Falniowski, Fryderyk, 2017. "A class of proximity-sensitive measures of relative deprivation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 105-110.
    2. Oded Stark, 2020. "Relative deprivation as a cause of risky behaviors," The Journal of Mathematical Sociology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(3), pages 138-146, July.
    3. Stark, Oded, 2023. "On a tendency in health economics to dwell on income inequality and underestimate social stress," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    4. George A. Akerlof, 1997. "Social Distance and Social Decisions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(5), pages 1005-1028, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stark, Oded & Kosiorowski, Grzegorz, 2024. "An optimal allocation of asylum seekers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 1-11.
    2. Stark, Oded, 2023. "On a tendency in health economics to dwell on income inequality and underestimate social stress," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    3. Stark, Oded & Budzinski, Wiktor, 2024. "The merger of populations as a revision of comparison space: Repercussions for social stress and income inequality," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    4. Oded Stark & Wiktor Budzinski, 2021. "A social‐psychological reconstruction of Amartya Sen’s measures of inequality and social welfare," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(4), pages 552-566, November.
    5. Amany A. El Anshasy & Mrittika Shamsuddin & Marina-Selini Katsaiti, 2023. "Financial Wellbeing and International Migration Intentions: Evidence from Global Surveys," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(7), pages 2261-2289, October.
    6. Oded Stark & Grzegorz Kosiorowski, 2021. "Turning relative deprivation into a performance incentive device," The Journal of Mathematical Sociology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 22-36, January.
    7. Jaya Jumrani & P. S. Birthal, 2017. "Does consumption of tobacco and alcohol affect household food security? Evidence from rural India," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(2), pages 255-279, April.
    8. Adriaan R. Soetevent, 2006. "Empirics of the Identification of Social Interactions; An Evaluation of the Approaches and Their Results," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 193-228, April.
    9. Selod, Harris & Zenou, Yves, 2001. "Location and Education in South African Cities under and after Apartheid," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 168-198, January.
    10. Maria Rosaria Carillo, 2000. "The Effect of Professionalisation and the Demand for Social Status on the Adoption of New Technologies," Rivista italiana degli economisti, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 3, pages 473-502.
    11. Zhenlin Yang, 2006. "On Joint Modelling and Testing for Local and Global Spatial Externalities," Development Economics Working Papers 22487, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    12. Stark, Oded & Zawojska, Ewa & Kohler, Wilhelm & Szczygielski, Krzysztof, 2018. "An adverse social welfare effect of a doubly gainful trade," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 77-84.
    13. Michele Cincera & Lydia Greunz & Jean-Luc Guyot & Olivier Lohest, 2006. "Capital humain et processus de création d'entreprise: le cas des primo-créateurs wallons," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 49(2).
    14. Entorf, Horst & Spengler, Hannes, 2000. "Socioeconomic and demographic factors of crime in Germany: Evidence from panel data of the German states," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 75-106, March.
    15. Michael Braun & André Bonfrer, 2011. "Scalable Inference of Customer Similarities from Interactions Data Using Dirichlet Processes," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(3), pages 513-531, 05-06.
    16. Brock, William A. & Durlauf, Steven N., 2007. "Identification of binary choice models with social interactions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 140(1), pages 52-75, September.
    17. Nekby, Lena & Rödin, Magnus, 2007. "Acculturation Identity and Labor Market Outcomes," Research Papers in Economics 2007:7, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    18. Alfredo De Massis, 2012. "Article Commentary: Family Involvement and Procedural Justice Climate among Nonfamily Managers: The Effects of Affect, Social Identities, Trust, and Risk of Non–Reciprocity," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(6), pages 1227-1234, November.
    19. Iryna Hayduk & Maude Toussaint‐Comeau, 2022. "Determinants of noncognitive skills: Mediating effects of siblings' interaction and parenting quality," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(4), pages 677-694, October.
    20. Karolyi, G. Andrew, 2016. "The gravity of culture for finance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 610-625.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental Economics and Policy; Health Economics and Policy;

    JEL classification:

    • D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • Z18 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:ubzefd:340795. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zefbnde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.