Adaptation or Social Comparison? The effects of income on happiness

Luis Angeles ()

No 2010-03, SIRE Discussion Papers from Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE)

Abstract: Two mechanisms have attracted considerable attention from researchers studying the effects of income on happiness: adaptation and social comparison. In this paper we study both mechanisms using a panel of British households. Besides dealing with the UK case in detail, the paper contributes to the literature by considering the two mecha- nisms together and testing for them both separately and jointly. Our results strongly support the existence of adaptation effects but find only weak evidence in favour of social comparison.

Keywords: Income and happiness; adaptation; social comparison; BHPS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Adaption or social comparison? The effects of income on happiness (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:edn:sirdps:136

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