楼主可以到下面这个链接去看看：http://bbs.translators.com.cn/mtsbbs/printthread_thread,50833_offset,0
根据该链接上探讨的内容，Positional goods are products and services whose value is mostly, if not exclusively, a function of their ranking in desirability in comparison to substitutes. The extent to which a good's value depends on such a ranking is referred to as its positionality.
Positional goods often earn economic rents or quasi-rents. Examples of positional goods include high social status, exclusive real estate, a spot in the freshman class of a prestigious university, a reservation at the "hottest" new restaurant, and fame. The measure of satisfaction derived from a positional good depends on how much one has in relation to everyone else. A society that devotes more resources to positional goods is arguably wasting effort, since a gain for one must come at a loss for another.
根据上面的英文解释，Positional goods通常是指可以彰显购买人与众不同的身份或者社会地位的这一类商品，因此，我认为可以根据实际运用的具体环境，选择性地翻译成“地位性商品”，或者“奢侈品”之类的。或者也可以根据实际情况变通处理成具有同等意义的其他词语。

Positional goods are products and services whose value is mostly (if not exclusively) a function of their ranking in desirability, in comparison to substitutes.

To help fix ideas, I begin with two simple thought experiments. In each, you
must choose between two worlds that are identical in every respect except
one. The first choice is between world A, in which you will live in a 4000-
square-foot house and others in 6000-square-foot houses; and world B, in
which you will live in a 3000-square-foot house, others in 2000-square-foot
houses. Once you choose, your position on the local housing scale will
persist.

If only absolute consumption mattered, A would be clearly better. Yet
most people say they would pick B, where their absolute house size is
smaller but their relative house size is larger. Even those who say they would
pick A seem to recognize why someone might be more satisfied with a 3000-
square-foot house in B than with a substantially larger house in A.
In the second thought experiment, your choice is between world C, in
which you would have four weeks a year of vacation time and others would
have six weeks; and world D, in which you would have two weeks of
vacation, others one week. This time most people pick C, choosing greater
absolute vacation time at the expense of lower relative vacation time.

I use the term positional good to denote goods for which the link between
context and evaluation is strongest and the term nonpositional good to denote those for which this link is weakest.

"DOES CONTEXT MATTER MORE FOR SOME GOODS THAN OTHERS?"
Robert H. Frank

说得很好，最近也在查找相关文献