Neighbors as negatives: Relative earnings and well-being
Neighbors as negatives: Relative earnings and well-being
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DOI：
10.1162/003355305774268255
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发表时间：
2005-08-01
影响因子：
13.7
通讯作者：
Luttmer, EFP
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Luttmer, EFP
本文调查了当周围的人赚得更多时，个人是否会感到更糟。换句话说，人们关心相对地位吗？“落后于人”是否会降低幸福感？为了回答这个问题，我将包含各种幸福指标的个人数据与当地平均收入信息相匹配。我发现，在控制个人收入的情况下，邻居的收入越高，自我报告的幸福感越低。数据的面板性质和丰富的幸福和行为指标表明，这种关联不是由选择或人们定义幸福的方式变化驱动的。有证据表明，邻居的收入增加对自己的幸福感产生的负面影响很可能是由人际偏好引起的，也就是说，人们的效用函数除了绝对消费外，还依赖于相对消费。
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 data containing various 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 self-reported 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, that is, people having utility functions that depend on relative consumption in addition to absolute consumption.