Education as a Positional Good: A Life Satisfaction Approach
Education as a Positional Good: A Life Satisfaction Approach
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DOI：
10.1007/s11205-010-9709-1
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发表时间：
2011-09-01
影响因子：
3.1
通讯作者：
Salinas-Jimenez, Javier
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
del Mar Salinas-Jimenez, Ma;Artes, Joaquin;Salinas-Jimenez, Javier
在本文中，我们实证研究的直接影响，教育的效用。除了教育的投资方面，重点放在其消费部分和教育地位问题上。我们使用世界价值观调查（WVS）的数据，并采用生活满意度方法。首先，我们发现，教育对生活满意度的影响显着独立于其对收入的影响，从而确定了教育的消费成分。此外，鉴于教育对个人福祉的贡献可能部分取决于相对地位而不是绝对水平，我们接下来研究教育是否可以被视为一种地位商品。为此，我们分析了教育和生活满意度之间的关系，在不同的收入群体中，教育的参考水平可能有所不同。此外，我们控制职业地位，因为教育的好处可能会通过职业福利出现。我们的研究结果表明，教育对主观幸福感的贡献是更强的人达到一定的教育水平，从而表明，这种贡献部分是由于位置的关注。
In this paper we empirically investigate the direct effects of education on utility. Besides investment aspects of education, the focus is placed on its consumption component and on education positional concerns. We use data from the World Values Survey (WVS) and adopt a life satisfaction approach. First, we find that education shows a significant effect on life satisfaction independent of its effect on income, thus identifying a consumption component of education. Furthermore, given that the contribution of education to individual wellbeing might depend partly on relative position rather than absolute levels, we next study whether education can be considered as a positional good. To this end we analyse the relationship between education and life satisfaction for people in different income groups in which the reference levels of education may differ. Additionally, we control for occupational status since benefits from education could appear via occupational benefits. Our results indicate that the contribution of education to subjective wellbeing is stronger as less people attain a given level of education, thus suggesting that this contribution is partly due to positional concerns.