Happiness, habits and high rank: Comparisons in economic and social life

Andrew Clark

Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: The role of money in producing sustained subjective well-being seems to be seriously compromised by social comparisons and habituation. But does that necessarily mean that we would be better off doing something else instead? This paper suggests that the phenomena of comparison and habituation are actually found in a variety of economic and social activities, rendering conclusions regarding well-being policy less straightforward.

Keywords: comparison; habituation; income; unemployment; marriage; divorce; health; religion; policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-11
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00586049v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00586049v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Happiness, Habits and High Rank: Comparisons in Economic and Social Life (2016)
Working Paper: Happiness, Habits and High Rank: Comparisons in Economic and Social Life (2016)
Working Paper: Happiness, Habits and High Rank: Comparisons in Economic and Social Life (2012)
Working Paper: Happiness, Habits and High Rank: Comparisons in Economic and Social Life (2011)
Working Paper: Happiness, habits and high rank: Comparisons in economic and social life (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00586049

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().