In a simple 2-period model of relative income under uncertainty, higher comparison income for the younger cohort can … signal higher or lower expected lifetime relative income, and hence either increase or decrease well-being. With data from … comparison income on life satisfaction with all age groups, and many controls. However when we split the West German sample by …

Theory suggests that subjective well-being is affected by income comparisons and adaptation to income. Empirical tests … variations in the underlying income type substantially affect tests of the relationship between life satisfaction, income rank …, reference income, and income adaptation. Models simultaneously controlling for income and income rank as well as models with a …

Subjective well-being (SWB) is generally argued to rise with relative income. However, direct evidence is scarce on … whether and how intensively individuals undertake income comparisons, to whom they relate, and what they perceive their … relative income to be. In this paper, novel data with direct information on income comparison intensity and perceived relative …

In normative public economics it is crucial to know how fast the marginal utility of income declines as income … inequality. We estimate this parameter using four large cross-sectional surveys of subjective happiness and two panel surveys …, using a number of assumptions, we are able to estimate the elasticity of marginal utility with respect to income. We obtain …

to neighbours has a negative coefficient, implying that living in a high-income neighbourhood increases happiness. The … income comparisons against a wide range of potential comparison groups, enabling us to investigate a broader range of … subjects to report (a) how their income compares to various groups, such a co-workers, friends, and neighbours, and (b) how …

A series of studies have suggested that changes in others' income may be perceived differently in post-transition and …' income divide the German nation. We find that the neighbourhood income effect for West Germany is negative (which is in line … with the ‘relative income' hypothesis) and slightly more marked in neighbourhoods that may be assumed to be places where …

In this study the relation between satisfaction with life and affluent income is analyzed by using cross-sectional and … effects social treadmill has on life satisfaction for humans with high income. A key result of the fixed-effect-regression is … the following: There is a significant effect relative income has on the contentment with life for affluent people, whereas …

income, demographics and social capital. The increase in social capital predicts the largest positive change in subjective … well-being. Income growth, also predicts a substantial change in subjective well-being, but it is compensated for about … three fourths by the joint negative predictions due to income comparison and income adaptation. Finally, we find that aging …