Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/150678 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research No. 130
Publisher: 
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin
Abstract: 
This article holds the view that intertemporal comparisons of subjective well-being measures are only meaningful when the underlying standards of judgment are unaltered. This is a weak point of such measures. The study investigates the change in the satisfaction judgments resulting from adaptation to income over time. Adaptation is defined to be desensitization (sensitization) to the hedonic effect of income resulting from an upward (downward) adjustment of the standards. A framework is introduced that provides empirical estimates for the rate of adaptation using data from the Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP).
Subjects: 
Adaptation
financial satisfaction
subjective well-being
standards of judgment
JEL: 
C23
I31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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