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What is a positional good? Recovering Hirsch’s insights

Jens Jørund Tyssedal

Economics and Philosophy2025https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266267125100424article
AJG 2ABDC A
Weight
0.37

Abstract

‘Positional goods’, a term coined by Fred Hirsch, is an important concept in economics, social sciences and philosophy; however, it is used in different ways. This paper recovers Hirsch’s concept of positional goods as scarce goods that are fixed or near-fixed in supply and argues for the usefulness of this concept. Hirsch’s concept may have explanatory power beyond the concept used by most economists – that of Robert Frank. Moreover, Hirsch’s concept is more explanatorily basic and useful than the concept used by most philosophers – that of Brighouse and Swift.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266267125100424

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@article{jens2025,
  title        = {{What is a positional good? Recovering Hirsch’s insights}},
  author       = {Jens Jørund Tyssedal},
  journal      = {Economics and Philosophy},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266267125100424},
}

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What is a positional good? Recovering Hirsch’s insights

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Evidence weight

0.37

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.16 × 0.4 = 0.06
M · momentum0.53 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.