Direct evidence on income comparisons and subjective well-being

"Subjective well-being (SWB) is generally argued to rise with relative income. However, direct evidence is scarce on whether and how intensively individuals undertake income comparisons, to whom they relate, and what they perceive their relative income to be. In this paper, novel data with dire...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Goerke, Laszlo, Pannenberg, Markus
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: Berlin 2013
DIW
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19128127124919463099-Direct-evidence-on-income-comp.htm
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author Goerke, Laszlo
Pannenberg, Markus
author_facet Goerke, Laszlo
Pannenberg, Markus
collection Library items
description "Subjective well-being (SWB) is generally argued to rise with relative income. However, direct evidence is scarce on whether and how intensively individuals undertake income comparisons, to whom they relate, and what they perceive their relative income to be. In this paper, novel data with direct information on income comparison intensity and perceived relative income with respect to predetermined reference groups is used to provide evidence on the relationship between income comparisons and SWB. We find negative correlations between comparison intensity and SWB for co-workers, people in the same occupation and friends. For job-related reference groups income comparisons are mostly upwards and perceiving to earn less than the reference group is negatively correlated with SWB."
format TEXT
geographic Germany
id 19128127124919463099_ff429be596d94818b61225c8a84843c9
institution ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
is_hierarchy_id 19128127124919463099_ff429be596d94818b61225c8a84843c9
is_hierarchy_title Direct evidence on income comparisons and subjective well-being
language English
physical 18 p.
Digital
publishDate 2013
publisher Berlin
DIW
spellingShingle Goerke, Laszlo
Pannenberg, Markus
income distribution
statistics
well being
Direct evidence on income comparisons and subjective well-being
title Direct evidence on income comparisons and subjective well-being
topic income distribution
statistics
well being
url https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19128127124919463099-Direct-evidence-on-income-comp.htm