Inequality and Happiness: Are Europeans and Americans Different?
Inequality and Happiness: Are Europeans and Americans Different?
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DOI：
10.2139/ssrn.293781
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发表时间：
2001-04
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
A. Alesina;R. Di Tella;Robert J. MacCulloch
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
A. Alesina;R. Di Tella;Robert J. MacCulloch
标题中提出的问题的答案是“是”。通过对有关幸福感的调查问题总共 128,106 个答案，我们发现，不平等对欧洲的幸福感产生了巨大的、负面的和显着的影响，但在美国则不然。有两种可能的解释。首先，欧洲人更喜欢更平等的社会（不平等属于欧洲人的效用函数，但不适用于美国人）。其次，美国的社会流动性（或被认为）较高，因此贫困不会被视为影响未来的收入。我们通过按收入和意识形态划分样本来检验这些假设。有证据表明，在美国，不平等只对一小部分富有的左翼人士产生了不满。在欧洲，不平等让穷人和左翼人士不高兴。这支持这样的假设：不平等影响欧洲的幸福，因为他们的社会流动性较低（因为富人或右翼不存在对平等的偏好）。研究结果有助于解释为什么欧洲比美国更普遍要求政府解决不平等问题。
The answer to the question posed in the title is 'yes.' Using a total of 128,106 answers to a survey question about happiness,' we find that there is a large, negative and significant effect of inequality on happiness in Europe but not in the US. There are two potential explanations. First, Europeans prefer more equal societies (inequality belongs in the utility function for Europeans but not for Americans). Second, social mobility is (or is perceived to be) higher in the US so being poor is not seen as affecting future income. We test these hypotheses by partitioning the sample across income and ideological lines. There is evidence of inequality generated' unhappiness in the US only for a sub-group of rich leftists. In Europe inequality makes the poor unhappy, as well as the leftists. This favors the hypothesis that inequality affects European happiness because of their lower social mobility (since no preference for equality exists amongst the rich or the right). The results help explain the greater popular demand for government to fight inequality in Europe relative to the US.