Association Between Age and Subjective Economic Hardship Across the Income Distribution in Europe

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that older people are more satisfied with their finances than younger individuals, even if they have a low income. We examine to what extent this can be observed when studying the risk of subjective economic hardship among the adult population in 28 European countries. Our study describes the association between age and the risk of subjective economic hardship and how the association varies by level of income. Additionally, we examine the role of savings, tenure status, and debt in explaining the association. The data come from the 2020 EU-SILC survey and its ad-hoc module on over-indebtedness, consumption, and wealth. We estimate logistic regression models that control for country variation. The findings indicate that there are large differences between European countries regarding the risk of subjective economic hardship and how it varies by age. We show that in Europe as a whole and among individuals with the same level of income within countries, older people have a lower risk of subjective economic hardship than younger individuals, regardless of level of income. It seems that this is largely explained by older people more often being able to use their savings to maintain their standard of living. The results highlight the importance of using both objective and subjective measures to assess economic well-being, especially in comparisons of different population groups.