Absolute Income, Relative Income, and Happiness

By Richard. Ball, Kateryna Chernova. 2008

299 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ac69cd617738834e6e61cd36ac0148e7102a6569

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Social Psychology

1. M. Berg
2. David Bartram
3. P. Victor
4. R. Veenhoven
5. Graham Brown
6. F. Stewart
7. Justin Paul
8. Wan-chi Chen

In Sociology and Political Science

1. M. Berg
2. P. Victor
3. Luca Mancini
4. R. Veenhoven
5. Graham Brown
6. F. Stewart
7. David Bartram
8. Justin Paul

Citations in the corpus

• How Education Enhances Happiness: Comparison of Mediating Factors in Four East Asian Countries (2012, methodology): “Although it has been argued that relative income is more crucial for greater happiness (Easterlin 1974), research confirms that absolute income also plays a role in one’s perceived well-being (Ball and Chernova 2008; Ferrer-i-Carbonell 2005).”
• Income inequality and happiness in 119 nations. In search for an optimum that does not appear to exist (2010, background): “The current study is different from the studies mentioned above in six respects: 1.”
• Parenthood and Happiness: a Review of Folk Theories Versus Empirical Evidence (2011, unknown): “An overview of studies and findings can be found in the ‘‘Appendix’’.”
• Life Satisfaction and Income Inequality (2011, unknown): “(1997), Clark and Oswald (1994), Blanchflower and Oswald (1997), Winkelmann and Winkelmann 1998, Alesina et al.”
• How universal is happiness (2008, background): “For a recent cross-national comparison, see Ball and Chernova (2008).”
• Do brands make consumers happy?- A masstige theory perspective (2021, background): “Studies have shown a stronger correlation between relative income and happiness (Ball and Chernova, 2008; Frey and Stutzer, 2002).”
• Cross-national differences in happiness: Cultural measurement bias or effect of culture? (2012, background): “8 World Database of Happiness, Correlational Findings, subject section ‘Current income’ (1.2) For a recent cross-national comparison see: Ball & Chernova (2008).”
• Economic Migration and Happiness: Comparing Immigrants’ and Natives’ Happiness Gains From Income (2011, background): “The quadratic term age-squared indicates that life satisfaction starts rising in later life if other variables are controlled (though in reality other variables aren’t controlled, e.g. as health declines with age, cf. Ball and Chernova 2008).”
• Managing Without Growth: Slower by Design, Not Disaster (2008, background): “’ They place this finding in a larger context by also concluding that ‘the effects of both absolute and relative income are small when compared to the effects of several non-pecuniary factors’ (Ball and Chernova 2005).”
• Why Horizontal Inequalities Matter: Some Implications for Measurement. (2005, background): “…as absolute position with mixed results, but on the whole, in developing countries and Europe, relative impoverishment seems to be a source of unhappiness, although not in the US where inequality is argued to signal opportunity (Alesina, Di Tella, and MacCulloch, 2004; Ball and Chernova, 2004) .”