"Just ahead of the Joneses" may be the new catchphrase for capturing how Americans want to compare economically with their neighbors, according to new research presented by Sara Solnick, associate professor of economics, at the American Economic Association conference early this year. It's been more than ten years since Solnick first began studying "positional goods," products and services from which satisfaction is derived largely in relation to their perceived exclusivity.

The work is so provocative that a paper she published in 1998 was cited within the last several weeks in both The New York Times and the online magazine Slate. It was based on a survey using a "two-world scenario," one in which you have more than everybody and another in which you and everyone else has more but you have relatively less than others. Responses varied depending on the item in question