| Abstract: |
studies have established that people care a great deal about their relative
economic position and not solely, as standard economic theory assumes, about
their absolute economic position. However, behavioral evidence is rare. This
paper provides an empirical analysis on how individuals’ relative income
position affects their performance. Using a unique data set for 1114 soccer
players over a period of eight seasons (2833 observations), our analysis
suggests that the larger the income differences within a team, the worse the
performance of the soccer players is. The more the players are integrated in a
particular social environment (their team), the more evident this negative
effect is. |