In many cultures a major factor affecting a person's happiness is the difference between their income and that of their neighbors, independent of their own income. This effect is strongest when the income difference is negative (richer neighbor). In addition, across their lifetime, a person's...

We investigate the geometry of finite datasets defined by equilibrium prices, income distributions, and total resources. We show that the equilibrium condition imposes no restrictions if total resources are collinear, a property that is robust to small perturbations. We also show that the set of...

Predictable polarization is everywhere. We can often predict the different directions that people’s opinions—including our own—will shift over time. Empirical studies suggest that this is so whenever evidence is ambiguous, a fact that’s often thought to demonstrate human bias or...

How do voters allocate costly attention to alternative political issues? And how does selective ignorance of voters interact with policy design by politicians? We address these questions by developing a model of electoral competition with rationally inattentive voters. Rational inattention...