Relative Income, Suicidal Ideation, and Life Satisfaction: Evidence from South Korea

Songman Kang and Soo Hwan Lim

Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, 2019, vol. 60, issue 1, 107-120

Abstract: The relative income hypothesis predicts that an individualʼs level of happiness decreases in othersʼ income. We examine its empirical relevance in South Korea using large survey data from the Korea Welfare Panel Study. We find evidence that higher peer income is strongly correlated with life satisfaction, but its effect on suicidal ideation is modest and largely insignificant. We also find that the effect of peer income is highly heterogeneous; those who consider themselves relatively poorer seem to be more strongly (and adversely) affected by their relative disadvantage than those relatively richer are (positively) affected by their relative advantage.

Keywords: relative income; subjective well-being; life satisfaction; suicidal ideation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I14 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hit:hitjec:v:60:y:2019:i:1:p:107-120

DOI: 10.15057/30364

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