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This study examines the effect of relative income on the happiness of wives and husbands in dual-earner households in Türkiye using the Family Structure Survey Micro Data Set in 2016 and 2021. The effect of relative income on happiness in dual-earner households is examined in relation to gender identity. The estimation results from ordered probit model show that an increase in wives’ share of total income decreases only husbands’ happiness, while the happiness of wives is not affected. The estimation results show that wives’ income exceeding husbands’ income does not lead to a decrease in wives’ happiness, while wives, who are almost the breadwinners of the households, negatively affect husbands’ happiness. The introduction of an alternative specification for gender identity confirms that there is no relationship between the income advantage of wives over husbands and their happiness. The estimation results for husbands’ happiness with the alternative specification show that a lower but very similar income contribution of wives, than that of husbands, reduces husbands’ happiness. It is also found that wives who are almost the main earners in dual-earner households reduce husbands’ happiness. All results obtained from the OLS regression are consistent with all findings. This study confirms that deviating from the prescribed roles that assigned to women has a negative impact on the husband’s happiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worktime has been falling slowly though real wages have risen dramatically. We show that in a general equilibrium model with CES utility and production functions, worktime falls with real wages if and only if the elasticity of substitution between consumption and leisure is less than that between capital and labour, but always rises with labour's income share and concerns with relative income. While a falling labour share may not reduce worktime due to market inflexibility, stronger income comparison increases inefficient overwork. Hence, more flexibility, higher income taxes and a basic income are needed to reduce working hours and raise social welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic growth may not improve society if people compare their achievements to others in relative ways that detract from well‐being. But who are these others and what economic dimensions matter? This research applied a p‐value ranking approach from genetics research to tackle the issue of reference group selection. Data from over 30,000 British and American adults were analyzed in nearly 800 multi‐level models. Over 300 measures of reference group socio‐economic status and eight measures of well‐being were used. The results showed that reference groups based on geography and age, perceptions of those in "society," and rank wealth were most consistently associated with well‐being. Measures less consistently associated with well‐being used averages, medians, and proportions in states and local authorities without demographic sub‐groups. Future researchers should consider the consistently associated dimensions of reference groups when constructing relative measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is charitable giving U-shaped in income? That is, do low- and high-income households donate a higher fraction of their income to charity than the middle class? Decades of correlational studies have found that the share of income given to charity follows a U-shape pattern in the United States, but scholars continue to debate whether the apparent U-shape is a statistical mirage, or accurately characterizes giving across the income distribution. We partnered with a real charity to conduct a charitable-giving experiment where relative endowments are revealed to participants. We experimentally verify that random placement in an income distribution causes a U-shaped giving-income curve. The U-shape observed in real-world data therefore is plausibly not spurious, but a real effect of relative economic status on giving decisions. JEL Classifications: C91, D31, D64, D91, H23 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines whether the gender identity, "a wife should not earn more than her husband," affects the market work and non-market work of married women in Japan. Empirical analyses used the data from the Japanese Panel Survey of Consumers (1993–2016) revealed that: 1) The distribution of the wives' relative incomes (the share of the couple's income earned by the wife) exhibits a sharp drop at the point of 50%, where the wives' income exceed the husbands' income; 2) Wives with a high potential for earning more than their husbands are more likely to refrain from entering the job market to avoid deviating from the gender identity. However, when they do choose to work, they do not manage their income to avoid violating the gender identity; and, 3) Wives' hours of non-market work, such as housework and childcare, increase when the wives' relative incomes exceed approximately 60–72%. Although the impacts of the gender identity on market work diminished after the 2008 financial crisis, the gender identity influenced non-market work more strongly after the crisis. Married women dedicated more hours to housework to mitigate the costs of deviating from the gender identity caused by participating in the labor market after the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a mathematical model and empirical test, this paper explores the incentive of income for aspirations and its channels, forging links between theory and data. Results present evidence that income significantly inspires one's aspirations, and all conclusions still hold after overcoming the interference of potential endogenous issues. In terms of channels, the "aspirations window" (a set of similar perceivable individuals) and "bandwidth load" (the mental space to think, process problems, and come up with solutions) play the mediating role in the stimulation of money; that is, low incomes will make aspirations window narrower and bandwidth load heavier, which is a momentous force behind one's aspirations failure. This paper also enlightens income distribution and the construction of internal motivation mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous literature has well documented the effect of relative income within households on marital satisfaction and housework distribution, but whether and how it affects men's labor behavior remains unknown. Using data from Chinese General Social Survey, this study finds that: (1) In couples where the wife earns less than the husband, an increase in the wife's relative income inhibits the husband's entrepreneurship, while in couples where the wife earns more than the husband, an increase in the wife's relative income promotes the husband's entrepreneurship. (2) The traditional gender concept of "men lead outside, women lead inside" provides a good explanation for our findings. Gender identity distorts not only women's but also men's behavior. (3) Men in rural areas, those with less education and those with short-term marriages are more sensitive to gender identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the importance of perception in the relationship between income and happiness. Using Icelandic data, we show that people's perception of their economic standing is more telling of their happiness than their actual income. We find a stronger association between happiness and a negative perception of one's economic standing than happiness and a positive perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the relationship between heterosexual partners' relative income and the incidence of both domestic violence and emotional abuse. Using Australian data drawn from society-wide surveys, we find women who earn more than their male partners are subject to a 33% increase in partner violence and a 20% increase in emotional abuse compared to mean levels. We show the relationship between relative spouse income and female partner abuse is best modelled by a binary variable that captures "female breadwinning." This finding differs from those of some earlier studies that considered only serious abuse and found a continuous negative relationship between female partners' relative income and abuse. Instead, our findings suggest a mechanism related to gender norms generating domestic violence. We find no link between relative income and abuse of male partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Guided by social role theory, social science research has established an individual's earnings relative to their partner (i.e., their relative income) as an important indicator of various marital‐ and well‐being‐related outcomes. Yet, despite a deep interest in employee compensation systems, management scholars have rarely considered the implications of relative income for workers. To address this oversight, we consider how the conformity values of dual‐income couples jointly predict relative income and how this relationship varies by gender. Further, we examine how relative income predicts employees' subjective career success and explore potential boundary conditions to this relationship. Using a time‐lagged study in a sample of 225 dyads, results from moderated polynomial regression analyses indicate that dyadic congruence in conformity values predicts relative income in a gender‐dependent way. Additionally, moderated multilevel regression analyses illustrate that respondents with lower absolute income display a stronger positive relationship between relative income and subjective career success. Relative income's effects on subjective career success do not depend on gender. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings regarding gender, conformity values, relative income, absolute income, and subjective career success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how a country's promotion of its culture affects another country's consumption patterns. We collected primary data from Malaysians about their exposure to Korean drama and consumption of Korean cosmetics in order to test whether the imaging of Korean cultural richness through the international marketing strategy termed Hallyu (entailing the use of Korean TV drama to image South Korea as a celebrated country) instigates conspicuous consumption in Malaysia. Respondents with higher levels of education but lower income watched Korean drama more intensively, and the intensity of watching Korean drama was positively associated with the consumption of Korean cosmetics. Our results highlight the ability to affect trade between countries by advertising through mass culture and exploiting the need for conspicuous consumption by those individuals experiencing perceived relative deprivation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a new perspective of peer effects that coexist in different consumer activities and investigates how consumption of a household is affected by the level of incomes of its peers. Using unique panel data on Chinese households between 2011 and 2019, we explore the causal relationship between peers' income and household consumption and then analyze plausible mechanisms behind it. We find that the peer effect of income in consumption is significantly positive. Higher level of average income in a reference group is associated with the household's greater expenditure on consumption and the improvement of consumption structure. There is also evidence that peer household income helps to encourage the household consumption through its impact on household income and peer household consumption. By identifying peers' income as the average income of other households living in the same region, in the same age group and with the same level of education, our research contributes to the literature on peer effects in consumption, mapping relationships between intragroup income and individual consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an exploration of the ways in which affluence undermines itself, based on a reexamination of two influential books: John Kenneth Galbraith's Affluent Society (1958) and Tibor Scotivsky's Joyless Economy (1976). Galbraith's book offered blueprints for the reform of both the American economy and the discipline of economics based on his understanding that the affluent society was driven increasingly by the consumer rather than the producer. The essay explores the strengths and weaknesses of Galbraith's analysis based on an account of the course of American public policy in the decades since he wrote. He had advocated for an expansion of public goods; what emerged instead was an expansion of transfer payments. Scitovsky's account of consumer behavior sought to explain why rising income led to dissatisfied—joyless—consumers. Expanding on his approach, I identify the dynamic of consumer demand that acts to undermine the condition of affluence itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper investigates the non-marital fertility evolution in the USA for the period between 1976 and 2016. Beyond the well-known determinants in this framework, we add and test for the Easterlin relative income hypothesis. Easterlin stresses the role of the material aspirations formed in childhood (denominator) relative to the current economic perspectives (numerator) of young men. That ratio defines the relative income. We employ panel dynamic techniques at the state level. We find a negative and statistically significant effect of the relative income in the share of children born out-of-wedlock. Most importantly, relative income is robust to the inclusion of marriage. The latter may imply a socio-economic mobility perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the social-economic status of women has improved worldwide, with several factors reducing gender differences in labor participation and income equality, a substantial gender gap persists. The goal of this study is to determine how the gender gap is associated with social norms. Specifically, within the context of gender roles, we examine the social norm that wives should not earn more than their husbands. We estimate a model that explains wives' labor force participation in terms of the probability of wives earning more than their husbands by applying an estimation procedure that accounts for potential bias arising from self-selection into employment. Since the impact of social norms can vary in different cultural contexts, we compare the estimation results using datasets obtained from surveys conducted in Japan and the US—representing Eastern and Western cultures, respectively. Our results indicate that a 10 percentage point increase in the probability of wives earning more than their husbands is associated with an 8 percentage point decrease in their labor force participation rate in Japan, whereas the probability of wives earning more is not significant when the model is estimated using U.S. data. Thus, wives' labor force participation decisions can be related to the social norm more closely in Japan than in the US, reflecting the different social status of women in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Income comparisons are important for individual well-being. We examine the shape of the relationship between relative income and life satisfaction, and test empirically if the features of the value function of prospect theory carry over to experienced utility. We draw on a unique panel dataset for a middle-income country that allows us to work with an endogenous reference income, which differs for individuals with the same observable characteristics depending on the perception error about their relative position in the distribution. We find the value function for experienced utility to be concave for both positive and, at odds with prospect theory, also negative relative income. Loss aversion holds only for incomes that are sufficiently distant from the reference income. Our heterogeneity analysis shows that the slope of the value function is contingent on people's personality, social beliefs, and how much they care about income comparisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated whether income gaps in voting turnout vary with country-level economic inequality, and whether this pattern differs between wealthier and less-wealthy countries. Moreover, we investigated whether the prevalence of clientelism was the underlying mechanism that accounts for the presumed negative interaction between relative income and economic inequality at lower levels of national wealth per capita. The harmonised PolPart dataset, combining cross-national surveys from 66 countries and 292 country-years, including 510,184 individuals, was analysed using multilevel logistic regression models. We found that the positive effect of relative income on voting was weaker at higher levels of economic inequality, independent of the level of national wealth. Although clientelism partially explains why economic inequality reduces the income gap in voter turnout, it does not do so in the way we expected. It seems to decrease turnout of higher income groups, rather than increase turnout of lower income groups. Importantly, that economic inequality reduces the income gap in voter turnout does not imply that economic inequality is positive for democratic representation, since economic inequality was found to depress the likelihood of voting for all income groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is the Easterlin paradox lost, or has it been regained? Scholars have started to debate this topic in recent years. This paper explores the association between income and happiness in cities with different levels of economic development, which provides new evidence for the Easterlin paradox. 11,791 participants from 32 cities reported their absolute income (real income), relative income (subjective evaluation of their family's economic status), and subjective well-being (SWB). We also obtained the total gross domestic product (GDP) of each city from the Urban Statistical Yearbook as an indicator of regional economic development level. We applied the MLmed macro in SPSS to test the multilevel moderated mediation model. The results show that individual absolute income has significant predictive effects on relative income and SWB, and that relative income play a mediating role on the association between absolute income and SWB. Moreover, GDP moderates the association between absolute income and SWB, and the association between absolute income and SWB is stronger in cities with higher GDP. In addition, GDP moderates the relationship between absolute income and relative income, and the relationship between absolute income and relative income is stronger in cities with lower GDP. Furthermore, GDP moderates the mediating effect between absolute income and SWB not only at the individual level but also at the city level. The insights gained in this study may facilitate a more detailed understanding of the relation between income and SWB, and provide advice for individuals and governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A classic debate concerns whether absolute or relative income is more salient. Absolute values resources as constant across time and place while relative contextualizes one's hierarchical location in the distribution of a time and place. Objective: This study investigates specifically whether absolute income or relative income matters more for health and well-being. Methods: We exploit within-person, within-age, and within-time variation with higher-quality income measures and multiple health and well-being outcomes in the United States. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the Cross-National Equivalent File, we estimate three-way fixed effects models of self-rated health, poor health, psychological distress, and life satisfaction. Results: For all four outcomes, relative income has much larger standardized coefficients than absolute income. Robustly, the confidence intervals for relative income do not overlap with zero. By contrast, absolute income mostly has confidence intervals that overlap with zero, and its coefficient is occasionally signed in the wrong direction. A variety of robustness checks support these results. Conclusions: Relative income has far greater predictive validity than absolute income for self-reported health and well-being. Contribution: Compared to earlier studies, this study provides a more rigorous comparison and test of the predictive validity of absolute and relative income that is uniquely conducted with data on the United States. This informs debates on income measurement, the sources of health and well-being, and inequalities generally. Plausibly, these results can guide any analysis that includes income in models.

Present paper examines the prevalence of Duesenberry's relative income hypothesis in Nepalese economy during 1974/75-2019/20 through ARDL bound tests under DEF and Davis-SK specifications. The ARDL under DEF specification is found to be not valid. However, the ARDL bound test under Davis-SK specification is found valid. There exists cointegration among average propensity to consume, demonstration effect and ratchet effect. The coefficient of demonstration effect is found to be negative and that of ratchet effect to be positive as reported by ARDL models. The error correction model also implies that short run shocks significantly affect long run relations among the variables. The departure from the long term growth path due to short run shocks is adjusted by 11.3 % over the next year as indicated by error correction model. This study throws some lights in policy perspective. It is recommended that government of Nepal should impose heavy tax on the consumption of durables and luxuries to discourage consumption and encourage rate of saving, which is most inevitable in Nepalese economy to foster growth of employment and income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial necessity and desperation is the primary reason for females to enter into sex work. The health and well-being of female sex workers (FSWs) depend on the balance between their earnings and the cost of living in their local environment. Therefore it would be of value to examine the comparative cost of living adjusted earnings of FSWs in different countries to gauge equity or its absence in their financial state. Data about per client per encounter earnings for FSWs in Pune, India was taken from primary research conducted by the first author. Equivalent secondary data was acquired for the US and Thailand from an online literature review. Earnings after converting to US dollar values were adjusted against the cost of living in the respective environments of the FSWs and then compared. An FSW in India, (Pune) earned on the average US $4.40 after adjusting for the cost of living locally, while in Thailand (Bangkok) the equivalent earning was US $18.77 and in the US (Washington DC region) it was $101.79. These results suggest that an FSW in the US earns 23 times more, and a Thai FSW earns 4 times more than an FSW in India. There are numerous variables that affect the earnings of an FSW and the limited defined scope of this paper based on available data does not permit detailed analyses of causal or intermediate influencing factors. Nonetheless, it can be said with reasonable confidence that much needs to be done and can be done to mitigate the earning disparity, particularly in an emerging economy like India as shown in this small study, and that can perhaps be done best under the umbrella domain of a "harm reduction approach." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using three definitions of the middle class (MC) and the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement surveys from 2004 to 2014, we estimated the size of the MC and examined the correlates and consumption patterns of the MC for Pakistan. According to the absolute income, relative income and asset–ownership definitions, the MC grew by 16%, 8%, and 10%, respectively, from 2004 to 2014. The results of the biprobit model showed that the probability of entering the MC was associated with higher education, urban residence and non-agricultural employment. Additionally, the MC was associated with greater consumption of ordinary and luxury goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constitutes an initial attempt to shed light on the role of income distribution for household debt in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe (CESEE). Using household‐level data from the OeNB's Euro Survey for the period 2008–2018, we address the question whether interpersonal comparisons ("Keeping up with the Novaks") are associated with the probability of having a loan and planning to take out a loan. Applying multilevel probit modeling to consider the hierarchical structure of the data, our results support the notion that higher income inequality is negatively correlated with the probability of having a loan at the bottom of the distribution, and positively at the top. We show this impact for almost all components of household debt, but evidence is strongest for mortgage and foreign currency loans. Loan plans are associated with income inequality at the very top of the income distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines whether intra-European migration pays off in terms of income and subjective well-being (SWB) for migrants aged 50 + who are now growing old abroad and in what way their SWB is associated with their relative income position. Using panel data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe allows us to go beyond the classical comparison with the native reference group and draw on information about respondents who stayed in the place of origin ('stayers'). Our findings indicate that migration does pay off in later life. Compared to similar stayers, migrants have higher income and higher SWB levels. Furthermore, we find that older migrants' SWB is positively associated with their relative income position for those with an income above the income of both stayers in the origin and natives in the destination country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effects of income aspiration and social and economic comparison (with a wide range of reference groups) on the life satisfaction of Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands by using a new and a more direct approach. This is made possible with a unique data set applied to a representative sample of 1006 respondents that includes individual data on reported satisfaction with life, as well as a sufficient income evaluation measure as a proxy for individuals' aspiration levels. The proxy measure for social and economic comparison is the evaluation of socioeconomic status on the ladder. Respondents not only assess their socio-economic position on the ladder, but also evaluate the reference groups' position as well. The results reveal that life satisfaction of respondents' is negatively correlated with their income aspiration level, controlling for the effect of income and other socio-demographic and socio-economic variables. The estimates for the dummy specifications reveal that the perception of a worse living standard than Dutch natives is significantly and negatively correlated with the life satisfaction of Turkish immigrants. Furthermore, the high coefficient for comparison with people in Turkey indicates that the reference groups in the country of origin do not lose their importance and effect. For life domain reference groups, both upward and downward evaluations are statistically significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the importance of income, relative income, monetary and non-monetary poverty for individual wellbeing or happiness in rural Bangladesh. The study is the first estimate of a wellbeing function for Bangladesh using nationally representative micro-panel data. Employing a linear panel model with individual random effects and a large set of control variables like education, work status and disability, we found a strong and positive relationship between wellbeing and income. Being further below the poverty line—estimated using the depth-of-poverty measure—was found to have a significant negative effect on happiness. On the other hand, the income of the reference group was found to be just as important as one's own income for an individual's happiness. Comparisons were found to be asymmetric and upwards. Improvements in a multidimensional poverty index, constructed using indicators of household education, health and living standards, were found to have a positive and significant relationship with happiness in all specifications. Gender-disaggregated analysis reveals that, while the income effect was found to be stronger for male individuals, the effects of relative income, monetary and non-monetary poverty on subjective wellbeing are larger for female individuals. The results thus point towards a need to incorporate such notions into the assessment of individuals' wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We test whether various measures of relative income and rank income hypothesis explain life satisfaction in Ecuador. We found robust evidence that the rank position of the income within the reference group explains life satisfaction. In contrast, the effect of relative income measures on happiness is sensitive to the variables used to construct the reference group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Easterlin's relative income hypothesis refers to the current income of young adults compared to the level of material aspirations acquired during childhood. The hypothesis implies that young individuals are expected to reduce fertility if their material aspirations grow at a higher rate than their incomes. This paper examines whether the same hypothesis holds true for marriage. A higher (lower) level of income combined with a lower (higher) level of material aspirations would increase (decrease) relative income and consequently could affect marriage rates. Thus, relative income might be one explanation for the "marriage paradox" which indicates that young adults in the United States retreat from marriage despite perceiving it as a milestone of their lives. One might also expect relative income to be a better predictor of marriage than absolute income. This is because, according to the Easterlin hypothesis, the behaviour of young adults reflects not only their response to changes in external conditions (e.g. absolute income), but also to past events they have experienced. We employ panel dynamic methods and causality tests for the United States that span the period from 1981 to 2016. Empirical analysis supports the relative income hypothesis. Causality tests indicate that the relationship runs mostly from relative income to marriage rather than the other way round. Relative income emerges as a stronger predictor than absolute income in all of the methods employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of both income rank and relative income, as indicators of status, has long been recognised in the literature on life satisfaction and happiness. Recently, several authors have made explicit comparisons of the relative importance of these two measures of income status, and concluded that rank dominates to the extent that reference income becomes insignificant in regressions including both these explanatory variables, and that even absolute or household income, otherwise always positively related to happiness, may lose statistical significance. Here we test this hypothesis with a large UK panel (British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society) for 1996–2017, split by age and retirement status, and find, contrary to previous results, that rank, household income and reference income are all usually important explanatory variables, but with significant differences between subgroups. This finding holds when rank is in its often-used relative form, and also with absolute rank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to assess the impacts of absolute and relative income on self-rated health (SRH) of residents in rural and urban China. Data were derived from the China Health and Nutrition Survey. Three distinct measures of relative income were considered (Gini coefficient, Yitzhaki index, and Deaton index) and computed for 3 geographic units (nation, province, and community). Nonlinear dynamic models for panel data were employed to test the absolute and relative income hypotheses. Absolute income was significantly associated with SRH among urban and rural populations. Relative income, as measured by the Gini coefficient, the Yitzhaki index, and the Deaton index, had statistically significant and negative impacts on SRH among the rural population, regardless of the reference group. For the urban population, the Gini coefficient was associated with SRH regardless of the reference group. In contrast, only the Yitzhaki index and the Deaton index at the provincial level were associated with SRH among the urban population. Our findings may provide a reference for policymakers to implement health policies designed to improve population health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have examined the roles of absolute income and relative income in subjective well‐being. However, previous studies focused mainly on individual‐level indicators and neglected the interdependent effects of each spouse's income in the family context. In this study, we focused on the relationships among absolute income (real income), relative income (subjective evaluation of the family economic status), and life satisfaction. We applied the actor–partner interdependence mediation model, and our results, which we derived from 1,744 Chinese dyadic samples, indicated that absolute and relative income were crucial indicators of subjective well‐being. Interdependencies existed between husbands and wives, but the effects were asymmetrical. Specifically, wives cared more about their husbands' absolute income, whereas husbands cared more about their wives' subjective evaluation of the family's economic status. In addition, the relationship between absolute income and life satisfaction was mediated by the wife's evaluation of the family's economic status. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical evidence indicates that an individual's happiness is relative with respect to income, whereby it increases with one's own income and declines as the income of a reference group increases. Several recent studies further suggest that the effect of relative income is mediated by the extent to which people compare themselves with others. In line with the empirical research examining the effects of comparison intensity, in the present study, we focus on the degree to which people are conscious of others' living standards (hereinafter, awareness of others) and aim to ascertain whether the intensity of awareness of others interacts with the individual perception of relative income in affecting the degree of happiness. By analyzing survey data pertaining to samples representative of Japan and the U.S., we find that individuals who are highly conscious of others are unhappier in Japan but happier in the U.S. Second, the positive relationship between awareness of others and happiness found in the U.S. results from the perception of reference-group income, in that highly conscious individuals compare downward. Lastly, we further examine the extent to which the integrated effect of awareness of others and reference-group income is related to an individual's choice that could affect the degree of happiness. Our work intends to contribute to a better understanding of how different measures of reference income and respondents' awareness of others interact in determining individual happiness and choice behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The associations between absolute vs. relative income at the household or neighborhood level and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk remain understudied in the Chinese context. Further, it is unclear whether stress biomarkers, such as cortisol, are on the pathway from income to CVD risk. We examined the associations of absolute and relative income with CVD risk observationally, as well as the mediating role of cortisol, and validated the role of cortisol using Mendelian Randomization (MR) in Hong Kong Chinese. Within Hong Kong's FAMILY Cohort, associations of absolute and relative income at both the individual and neighborhood levels with CVD risk [body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, self-reported CVD and self-reported diabetes] were examined using multilevel logistic or linear models (n = 17,607), the mediating role of cortisol using the mediation analysis (n = 1,562), and associations of genetically predicted cortisol with CVD risk using the multiplicative generalized method of moments (MGMMs) or two-stage least squares regression (n = 1,562). In our cross-sectional observational analysis, relative household income deprivation (per 1 SD, equivalent to USD 128 difference in Yitzhaki index) was associated with higher systolic blood pressure (0.47 mmHg, 95% CI 0.30–0.64), but lower BMI (−0.07 kg/m2, 95% CI −0.11 to −0.04), independent of absolute income. Neighborhood income inequality was generally unrelated to CVD and its risk factors, nor was absolute income at the household or neighborhood level. Cortisol did not clearly mediate the association of relative household income deprivation with systolic blood pressure. Using MR, cortisol was unrelated to CVD risk. Based on our findings, relative household income deprivation was not consistently associated with cardiovascular health in Hong Kong Chinese, nor were neighborhood income inequality and absolute income, highlighting the context-specific ways in which relative and absolute income are linked to CVD risk.

Easterlin’s relative income hypothesis refers to the current income of young adults compared to the level of material aspirations acquired during childhood. The hypothesis implies that young individuals are expected to reduce fertility if their material aspirations grow at a higher rate than their incomes. This paper examines whether the same hypothesis holds true for marriage. A higher (lower) level of income combined with a lower (higher) level of material aspirations would increase (decrease) relative income and consequently could affect marriage rates. Thus, relative income might be one explanation for the “marriage paradox” which indicates that young adults in the United States retreat from marriage despite perceiving it as a milestone of their lives. One might also expect relative income to be a better predictor of marriage than absolute income. This is because, according to the Easterlin hypothesis, the behaviour of young adults reflects not only their response to changes in external conditions (e.g. absolute income), but also to past events they have experienced. We employ panel dynamic methods and causality tests for the United States that span the period from 1981 to 2016. Empirical analysis supports the relative income hypothesis. Causality tests indicate that the relationship runs mostly from relative income to marriage rather than the other way round. Relative income emerges as a stronger predictor than absolute income in all of the methods employed.

This paper examines the nature of inter-ethnic relations in North Macedonia drawing on the 2008 European Quality of Life Survey. Ceteris paribus, the self-declared level of subjective well-being is smaller among ethnic Albanians than among Macedonians. In the presence of relative income variables, subjective well-being among both ethnic groups is not significantly associated with their absolute income. The subjective well-being of ethnic Albanians is significantly associated with their income relative to Macedonians. However, the subjective well-being of Macedonians is not affected by income relative to ethnic Albanians. The results suggest that measures are needed to reduce income inequality between ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examine the relationship between income and happiness for individuals living in Turkey. Our results are based on approximately 300,000 individuals who took part in the Life Satisfaction Survey conducted annually between 2003 and 2017. We observed a modest positive and statistically significant relationship between household income and happiness. Relative standing in society measured by self-placement on a welfare ladder matters more than absolute income for happiness. In a similar vein, we find that increase in average income of the city in which a person lives reduces happiness substantially, to the extent that it offsets the happiness effect of an increase in absolute income. We complement regression results with people's self-reports that around 50% of people care about what other people think of their material status. Interestingly, the effect of relative income on happiness is significantly different between men and women. Also, women report less interest in others' material status or income level compared to men. Congruent with previous findings, we show that the effect of absolute income has dropped over the years with Turkey's economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]