Reduction of Income Inequality and Subjective Well-Being in Europe

Hajdu, Tamás; Hajdu, Gábor

doi:10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2014-35

Cited by 28 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Several studies have found that income has a significantly positive effect on happiness (Ahuvia and Friedman, 1998;Hajdu and Hajdu, 2014). However, our results find that the effect of income is insignificant, which is consistent with the results of Campbell et al (1976), who concluded that personal income exerts little influence over subjective well-being.…”

Section: Economic Variablessupporting

confidence: 58%

Subjective Well-being and Its Determinants in China: An Empirical Study Based on Survey Data

Liang¹,

Shen

2016

RAE

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Using household survey data collected in 2013, this paper empirically investigates the determinants of individual subjective well-being in China, where there has been rapid economic development over the past three decades. The main results are as follows. First, factors such as good health, marital status, life satisfaction, body mass index, physical exercise, and expectations of inflation are all significantly correlated with the reported level of happiness. Second, income has no significant effect on the level of happiness, and happiness has an inverted U-shaped relationship to wealth. Third, increased education decreases the level of happiness. To some extent, these findings can explain why subjective well-being has declined in China, despite its spectacular economic growth.

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Section: Economic Variablessupporting

confidence: 58%

Subjective Well-being and Its Determinants in China: An Empirical Study Based on Survey Data

Liang¹,

Shen

2016

RAE

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“…If welfare spending reduces income inequality successfully, redistribution might as well increase life satisfaction of high income earners, as people dislike economic inequality for various reasons. Evidence on the relation between inequality and aggregate (country-level) happiness levels, however, is far from being conclusive (Berg and Veenhoven, 2010;Ferrer-i-Carbonell and Ramos 2012;Rözer and Kraaykamp 2012;Hajdu and Hajdu 2014).…”

Section: Life Satisfaction and Government Size: Related Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who benefits from big government? A life satisfaction approach

Knoll¹,

Pitlik

2015

Empirica

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractWhich impact does government size have on life satisfaction, and how do effects of bigger government differ between income groups in society? Previous studies typically employed country averages and thus neglect possibly heterogeneous happiness effects between income groups. The paper addresses empirically the effects of government spending on subjective well-being of individuals belonging to different income groups.Our analysis is based on individual data from 25 European countries participating in the European Social Survey. In contrast to most previous studies we take account of the endogeneity between relative income position and reported life satisfaction by an instrumental variable approach.Our results suggest, first, that most government spending categories, including social protection, are on average negatively related to individual well-being. Secondly, estimated marginal effects of health, education and social protection spending at different income levels show that spending increases always have a stronger negative effect on high income groups' well-being than on low income groups' life satisfaction.For all government spending categories, marginal happiness effects of higher public spending are clearly negative for income groups at the top.

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“…This line of argument is related to the finding by Luttmer (2005) that relative consumption is an important aspect of well-being, that should not be ignored and has a negative impact in addition to the influence of absolute consumption. Finally, Hajdu and Hajdu (2014) found that income redistribution leads to increased well-being.…”

Section: Income Inequality and Life Satisfactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic Freedom, Income Inequality and Life Satisfaction in OECD Countries

Graafland

Lous

2017

J Happiness Stud

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Since Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century in 2014, scientific interest into the impact of income inequality on society has been on the rise. However, little is known about the mediating role of income inequality in the relationship between market institutions and subjective well-being. Using panel analysis on a sample of 21 OECD countries to test the effects of five different types of economic freedom on income inequality, we find that fiscal freedom, free trade and freedom from government regulation increase income inequality, whereas sound money decreases income inequality. Income inequality is found to have a negative effect on life satisfaction. Mediation tests show that income inequality mediates the influence of fiscal freedom, free trade and freedom from government regulation on life satisfaction.

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Reduction of Income Inequality and Subjective Well-Being in Europe

Cited by 28 publications

References 59 publications

Subjective Well-being and Its Determinants in China: An Empirical Study Based on Survey Data

Subjective Well-being and Its Determinants in China: An Empirical Study Based on Survey Data

Who benefits from big government? A life satisfaction approach

Economic Freedom, Income Inequality and Life Satisfaction in OECD Countries

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