The DOI matches its Crossref record; 61 of the 61 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Neighbors as Negatives: Relative Earnings and Well-Being
Open accessAbstract
This paper investigates whether individuals feel worse off when others around them earn more.In other words, do people care about relative position and does "lagging behind the Joneses" diminish well-being?To answer this question, I match individual-level panel data containing a number of indicators of well-being to information about local average earnings.I find that, controlling for an individual's own income, higher earnings of neighbors are associated with lower levels of selfreported happiness.The data's panel nature and rich set of measures of well-being and behavior indicate that this association is not driven by selection or by changes in the way people define happiness.There is suggestive evidence that the negative effect of increases in neighbors' earnings on own well-being is most likely caused by interpersonal preferences, i.e. people having utility functions that depend on relative consumption in addition to absolute consumption.
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Cites
By Force of Habit: A Consumption‐Based Explanation of Aggregate Stock Market Behavior
Campbell, J. Y., & Cochrane, J. H. (1999) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/250059 · Cited by 5,210
Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence
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The Theory of Moral Sentiments
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Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all?
Easterlin, R. A. (1995) · Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization · doi:10.1016/0167-2681(95)00003-b · Cited by 3,116
A Theory of Social Interactions
Becker, G. S. (1974) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/260265 · Cited by 2,969
Satisfaction and comparison income
Clark, A. E., & Oswald, A. J. (1996) · Journal of Public Economics · doi:10.1016/0047-2727(95)01564-7 · Cited by 2,948
Income and Happiness: Towards a Unified Theory
Easterlin, R. A. (2001) · The Economic Journal · doi:10.1111/1468-0297.00646 · Cited by 2,521
What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?
Frey, B. S., & Stutzer, A. (2002) · Journal of Economic Literature · doi:10.1257/jel.40.2.402 · Cited by 2,206
Asset Prices under Habit Formation and Catching up with the Joneses
Abel, A. (1990) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w3279 · Cited by 2,001
Income and well-being: an empirical analysis of the comparison income effect
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Cited by
Dolan, P., Peasgood, T., & White, M. (2008) · Journal of Economic Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.joep.2007.09.001 · Cited by 3,121
Economic Growth and Subjective Well-Being: Reassessing the Easterlin Paradox
Stevenson, B., & Wolfers, J. (2008) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w14282 · Cited by 1,072
(2014) · Econometrica · doi:10.3982/ecta11991 · Cited by 586
Money and mental wellbeing: A longitudinal study of medium-sized lottery wins
Gardner, J., & Oswald, A. J. (2007) · Journal of Health Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2006.08.004 · Cited by 562
Economic Growth and Subjective Well-Being: Reassessing the Easterlin Paradox
Stevenson, B., & Wolfers, J. (2008) · Brookings Papers on Economic Activity · doi:10.1353/eca.0.0001 · Cited by 545
Metadata
- Authors
- Luttmer, E. F. P.
- Venue
- National Bureau of Economic Research
- Publisher
- National Bureau of Economic Research
- Published
- 2004-08
- OpenAlex
- W4299400367
- Cited by
- 434
- References
- 61
- Type
- report
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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