Information technologies and subjective well-being: Does the internet raise material aspirations?

Steffen Lohmann

VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order from Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association

Abstract: Existing work on the economics of well-being suggests that a person's subjective well-being depends to a large degree on his relative standing within his social environment. In this paper, we examine whether access to modern information and telecommunication technologies has an impact on relative concerns by raising material aspirations. We use cross-sectional data from the fifth wave of the World Values Survey and provide empirical evidence that people who regularly use the internet as a source of information derive relatively less life satisfaction from the same level of income. Using panel data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, we show that households in possession of a computer report needing significantly higher levels of income to make 'ends meet', given their actual level of income and a wide range of socio-economic characteristics. Our results corroborate the hypothesis that modern information technologies raise material aspirations via fostering relative concerns in the society. The empirical findings shed further light on the income-happiness paradox and identify a non-negligible channel how globalization might impact on subjective well-being.

JEL-codes: A12 D12 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap and nep-ict
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Information technologies and subjective well-being: does the Internet raise material aspirations? (2015)
Working Paper: Information technologies and subjective well-being: Does the internet raise material aspirations? (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:vfsc13:79708

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