Top Incomes and Subjective Well-being

Publication date: Available online 25 May 2019Source: Journal of Economic PsychologyAuthor(s): Michal BrzezinskiAbstractWe 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.
Source: Journal of Economic Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research