Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/76207 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 0815
Publisher: 
University of Zurich, Socioeconomic Institute, Zurich
Abstract: 
Economics rests upon a set of presumptions about how human beings are affected by income. Yet causal evidence is scant. This paper reports a longitudinal study of randomly selected lottery winners. Remarkably, we show that it takes almost three years before they enjoy their money. We develop a model of dissonance and deservingness. We argue that, despite the tradition of economics, human beings may weight differently the different kinds of income that accrue to them. If so, it is not sufficient to describe utility by a function u(y), and it is not true that 'a dollar is a dollar'.
Subjects: 
well-being
lottery income
deservingness
cognitive dissonance
happiness
JEL: 
I31
J3
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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