Do Danes and Italians Rate Life Satisfaction in the Same Way? Using Vignettes to Correct for Individual-Specific Scale Biases

Self-reported life satisfaction is highly heterogeneous across similar countries. This phenomenon can be largely explained by the di¤erent scales and benchmarks adopted by individuals when evaluating themselves. We use cross-sectional data on the population aged 50 and over in ten European countries to compare estimates from a model in which reporting styles are assumed to be constant across respon- dents with those from a model in which anchoring vignettes are used to correct for individual-speci?c scale biases. We ?nd that variations in response scales explain a large part of the di¤erences found in raw data. Moreover, the cross-country ranking in life satisfaction signi?cantly depends on scale biases.