Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/80603 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7452
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
In contrast to previous results combining all ages we find positive effects of comparison income on happiness for the under 45s, and negative effects for those over 45. In the BHPS these coefficients are several times the magnitude of own income effects. In GSOEP they cancel to give no effect of effect of comparison income on life satisfaction in the whole sample, when controlling for fixed effects, and time-in-panel, and with flexible, age-group dummies. The residual age-happiness relationship is hump-shaped in all three countries. Results are consistent with a simple life cycle model of relative income under uncertainty.
Subjects: 
subjective life-satisfaction
comparison income
reference groups
age
welfare
JEL: 
D10
I31
J10
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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