Top incomes and subjective well-being

Michał Brzeziński

Journal of Economic Psychology, 2019, vol. 73, issue C, 60-65

Abstract: We use data from the World Wealth & Income Database, the European Values Surveys and World Values Surveys to estimate the relationship between income inequality as measured by top income shares and subjective well-being in a sample of 35 countries observed between 1980s and 2010s (139 surveys and more than 200,000 respondents). Results show that top 1% income shares are positively associated with happiness, while that the relationship with life satisfaction is less certain. The positive link between top income shares and happiness is present in a subsample of Western countries. We discuss possible explanations for these findings.

Keywords: Top incomes; Subjective well-being; Life satisfaction; Happiness; Income inequality; World wealth & income database (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Working Paper: Top incomes and subjective well-being (2018)
Working Paper: Top incomes and subjective well-being (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:73:y:2019:i:c:p:60-65

DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2019.05.003

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