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Top incomes and subjective well-being

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  • Brzezinski, Michal

Abstract

We use data from the World Wealth & Income Database, the European Values Surveys and World Values Surveys to estimate the relationship between income inequality as measured by top income shares and subjective well-being in a sample of 35 countries observed between 1980s and 2010s (139 surveys and more than 200,000 respondents). Results show that top 1% income shares are positively associated with happiness, while that the relationship with life satisfaction is less certain. The positive link between top income shares and happiness is present in a subsample of Western countries. We discuss possible explanations for these findings.

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  • Brzezinski, Michal, 2019. "Top incomes and subjective well-being," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 60-65.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:73:y:2019:i:c:p:60-65
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2019.05.003
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    Cited by:

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    2. Christian-Lambert Nguena & Honoré Tekam & Borice Augustin Ngounou & Sostella Arida TchoualaFeutsa, 2024. "Building Joyful cities: is urbanization always pave a path to happiness in Africa?," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 71(4), pages 847-874, December.
    3. Martijn Hendriks & Martijn Burger & Harry Commandeur, 2023. "The influence of CEO compensation on employee engagement," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 607-633, February.
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    6. Yi-Bin Chiu & Zhen Wang & Xu Ye, 2023. "Household gift-giving consumption and subjective well-being: evidence from rural China," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1453-1472, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Top incomes; Subjective well-being; Life satisfaction; Happiness; Income inequality; World wealth & income database;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

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