Caporale, Guglielmo Maria, Georgellis, Yannis, Tsitsianis, Nicholas and Yin, Ya Ping (2009) Income and happiness across Europe: do reference values matter? Journal of Economic Psychology, 30(1), pp. 42-51. ISSN (print) 0167-4870
Full text not available from this archive.Abstract
Using cross-sectional data from the first two rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS), we examine the relationship between income, relative income and happiness across 19 European countries. We find that a positive and statistically significant relationship between income and happiness does exist, but such a relationship is weakened by reference income. We also find that while reference income exerts a negative impact on happiness in the case of Western European countries, its effect is positive in the case of the Eastern European countries, a finding that is consistent with the ?tunnel effect? hypothesis. This suggests that for Eastern Europeans reference income is likely to be a source of information for forming expectations about their future economic prospects, rather than a yardstick measure for social comparisons.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | cmparison income, reference groups, happiness, life, satisfaction |
| Research Area: | Accounting and finance Business and management studies Economics and econometrics Psychology |
| Faculty, School or Research Centre: | Faculty of Business and Law Faculty of Business and Law > Centre for Research in Employment, Skills and Society (CRESS) Faculty of Business and Law > Kingston Business School (Leadership, HRM and Organisation) |
| Depositing User: | Katrina Clifford |
| Date Deposited: | 29 Sep 2011 15:17 |
| Last Modified: | 29 Sep 2011 15:17 |
| URI: | http://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/id/eprint/21051 |
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