We estimate household equivalence scales using income satisfaction data from the German Socio-Economic Panel. We extend … reference effects in the determination of income satisfaction. We show that this adjustment helps to overcome a bias causing an …

panel data on 49,000 individuals living in Germany from 1992 to 2012 to uncover three empirical relationships. First, life … satisfaction falls with both the incidence and intensity of contemporaneous poverty. Second, poverty scars: those who have been … poor in the past report lower life satisfaction today, even when out of poverty. Last, the order of poverty spells matters …