What makes people feel poor when they are economically non-poor? Investigating the role of intergenerational mobility and comparison with friends

• Intergenerational mobility affects the discrepancy between people’s economic poverty status and their perceptions of poverty status. • Social comparison with one’s friends affects the discrepancy between people’s economic poverty status and their perceptions of poverty status. • Parents appear to be a more important reference group than friends in shaping the mismatch between economic and subjective poverty. This study examines how comparisons...