Age-specific income inequality and happiness over the life cycle

Hippolyte d'Albis, Damien Mayaux and Claudia Senik

No 2309, CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) from CEPREMAP

Abstract: One of the main puzzles uncovered by the happiness literature is the U-shaped relationship between age and self-declared happiness, with a mid-life nadir, around 50-55. In this paper, we show that mid-life is also the moment when within-age income inequality is at its most. We also show that greater within-age income inequality comes with lower life satisfaction. Moreover, this negative impact is stronger for those whose income is below the median level in their age-group. Hence, relative income concerns seem to be a factor of the trough in the age-happiness curve.

Keywords: Life satisfaction; life cycle; age-specific income inequality; I31; H24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 11 pages
Date: 2023-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age and nep-hap
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpm:docweb:2309

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