Beyond the Joneses: Inter-country income comparisons and happiness

Leonardo Becchetti, Stefano Castriota, Luisa Corrado and Elena Giachin Ricca

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), 2013, vol. 45, issue C, 187-195

Abstract: Our paper provides novel evidence on the burgeoning literature on life satisfaction and relative comparisons by showing that in the last 30 years comparisons with the well being of top income neighboring countries have generated negative feelings on a large sample of individuals in the Euro barometer survey. The paper shows that neighboring countries, and not just our individual neighbors or peers, can be reference groups and that the above mentioned effect depends on the intensity of media exposure.

Keywords: Life satisfaction; Relative income; Standard of living (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 E01 I31 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Beyond the Joneses: Inter-country income comparisons and happiness (2011)
Working Paper: Beyond the Joneses: inter-country income comparisons and happiness (2010)
Working Paper: Beyond the Joneses: inter-country income comparisons and happiness (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:soceco:v:45:y:2013:i:c:p:187-195

DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2013.05.009

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