"This paper proposes that individuals care about the relative income of proximate reference groups. Making use of self-reported life satisfaction as a proxy for unobservable utility, the relative income of siblings is tested for relevance as a reference point for new sample data from Venezuela....

Adolescent girls are viewed as a key demographic group to target for successfully breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty in developing countries. Unfortunately, for many teenage girls in developing countries, adolescence entails a fleeting transition from childhood to adulthood,...