IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/87118.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Paradoxes of Happiness: Why People Feel More Comfortable With High Inequalities And High Murder Rates?

Author

Listed:
  • Popov, Vladimir

Abstract

There is evidence that income and wealth inequalities are positively associated with happiness, as measured by the happiness index, and negatively associated with the suicide rate (that is considered an objective indicator of unhappiness). Moreover, there is some evidence that happiness is also positively linked the murder rate, especially when it goes hand in hand with inequalities. The possible explanation – competitive nature of human beings (a modification of a “big fish in the small pond” story) and perceptions of social justice: not only people enjoy the better than average position more than an even higher, but below the average position, but they also cherish the dream of becoming better than average. Greater equality that undermines the dream of becoming higher than average turns out to be disappointing for many. If murders occur without high income inequalities (i.e. murders are “unjustified”) and/or inequalities exist without high murders (inequalities are not perceived as unfair and do not cause social tension), then happiness is not affected.

Suggested Citation

  • Popov, Vladimir, 2018. "Paradoxes of Happiness: Why People Feel More Comfortable With High Inequalities And High Murder Rates?," MPRA Paper 87118, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:87118
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/87118/1/MPRA_paper_87118.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James B. Davies & Susanna Sandström & Anthony Shorrocks & Edward N. Wolff, 2007. "Estimating the Level and Distribution of Global Household Wealth," University of Western Ontario, Economic Policy Research Institute Working Papers 20075, University of Western Ontario, Economic Policy Research Institute.
    2. Hilke Brockmann & Jan Delhey & Christian Welzel & Hao Yuan, 2009. "The China Puzzle: Falling Happiness in a Rising Economy," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 387-405, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Popov, Vladimir, 2024. "Китайская Модель: Ретроспектива И Перспектива [The Chinese model: Retrospective and perspective]," MPRA Paper 121802, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Popov, Vladimir, 2019. "Billionaires, millionaires, inequality, and happiness," MPRA Paper 94081, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Popov, Vladimir, 2024. "Сколько Прав Нужно Человеку: Взлет И Падение Либерализма [How many rights does a human need: The rise and fall of liberalism]," MPRA Paper 120479, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stefano Bartolini & Francesco Sarracino, 2021. "Happier and Sustainable. Possibilities for a post-growth society," Department of Economics University of Siena 855, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    2. Hong, Yan-Zhen & Su, Yi-Ju & Chang, Hung-Hao, 2023. "Analyzing the relationship between income and life satisfaction of Forest farm households - a behavioral economics approach," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    3. Chau-kiu Cheung & Andrew Yiu-tsang Low & Xuan Ning, 2019. "Marital Liberalization in Relation to Life Satisfaction," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 14(2), pages 291-307, April.
    4. Tong Zou & Yikun Su & Yaowu Wang, 2018. "Examining Relationships between Social Capital, Emotion Experience and Life Satisfaction for Sustainable Community," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-16, July.
    5. Mikucka, Malgorzata & Sarracino, Francesco & Dubrow, Joshua K., 2017. "When Does Economic Growth Improve Life Satisfaction? Multilevel Analysis of the Roles of Social Trust and Income Inequality in 46 Countries, 1981–2012," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 447-459.
    6. Christopher Thron, 2016. "Lifestyle Tradeoffs and the Decline of Societal Well-Being: An Agent-Based Model," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 19(2), pages 1-5.
    7. Brinca, Pedro & Holter, Hans A. & Krusell, Per & Malafry, Laurence, 2016. "Fiscal multipliers in the 21st century," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 53-69.
    8. Wang, Jinxian & Wang, Yangjie & Sun, Cuicui & Chen, Xiaohong, 2021. "Does mandatory air quality information disclosure raise happiness? Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    9. Wang, Dazhe & Qian, Wenrong & Guo, Xiaolin, 2019. "Gains and losses: Does farmland acquisition harm farmers’ welfare?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 78-90.
    10. Gareth Davey & Ricardo Rato, 2012. "Subjective Wellbeing in China: A Review," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 333-346, April.
    11. Kaizhi Yu & Yun Zhang & Hong Zou & Chenchen Wang, 2019. "Absolute Income, Income Inequality and the Subjective Well-Being of Migrant Workers in China: Toward an Understanding of the Relationship and Its Psychological Mechanisms," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-27, July.
    12. Zhiming Cheng & Haining Wang & Russell Smyth, 2014. "Happiness and job satisfaction in urban China: A comparative study of two generations of migrants and urban locals," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(10), pages 2160-2184, August.
    13. Sarracino, Francesco, 2013. "Determinants of subjective well-being in high and low income countries: Do happiness equations differ across countries?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 51-66.
    14. repec:bof:bofitp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201508181355 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Yang Chen & Hongsheng Chen & Jinhua Liu, 2019. "Household Split, Income, and Migrants’ Life Satisfaction: Social Problems Caused by Rapid Urbanization in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-12, June.
    16. Sarracino, Francesco & O'Connor, Kelsey J. & Ono, Hiroshi, 2019. "Making economic growth and well-being compatible: evidence from Japan," MPRA Paper 93010, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. repec:zbw:bofitp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201508181355 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Xiangdan Piao & Xinxin Ma & Shunsuke Managi, 2021. "Impact of the Intra-household Education Gap on Wives’ and Husbands’ Well-Being: Evidence from Cross-Country Microdata," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 111-136, July.
    19. James Alm & Yongzheng Liu, 2014. "China's Tax-for-Fee Reform and Village Inequality," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(1), pages 38-64, March.
    20. Jingwen Rao & Jing Ma & Yanwei Chai, 2023. "Comparing Mobility-Based PM 2.5 Concentrations and Activity Satisfaction in Beijing between 2012 and 2017," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-13, January.
    21. Honghao Ren & Henk Folmer & Arno J. Van der Vlist, 2018. "The Impact of Home Ownership on Life Satisfaction in Urban China: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 397-422, February.
    22. Ozan Eksi & Neslihan Kaya, 2017. "Life Satisfaction and Keeping Up with Other Countries," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 199-228, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Happiness; inequalities; murders; suicides;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:87118. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.