Social Comparison: Reference Groups and Wage Transparency

Short Description: This module addresses two research questions on social comparison: First, whom do individuals compare themselves to; second, how accurate are individuals’ beliefs about their reference group’s income? Furtheremore the relative importance of different reference groups and individuals’ knowledge about their peers were elicted.

Methodological Details: Respondents were asked questions that focused on comparing their own gross job earnings with other groups and individuals.

Contact

Syear

Respondents

Dataset

Variables

Availability

Field

Method

Replication

Thomas Dohmen (University of Bonn), Stefan Liebig (DIW Berlin), Dana Muller (IAB)

2022

tba

Coming with release in 2025

~4/2025

Economics

Survey items