A Note on Inequality Aversion Across Countries, Using Two New Measures

20 Pages Posted: 31 May 2011

See all articles by Diane Macunovich

Diane Macunovich

University of Redlands; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Abstract

Studies using the Gini Index as a measure of income inequality have consistently found a positive and significant effect of the Gini on both happiness and life satisfaction. Two new measures used here - the ratio of persons in the lowest income decile relative to the number in the highest, and the ratio of the number in the lowest social class relative to the number in the highest, in a given country - as developed from the World Values Survey data, are shown here to have a negative and significant effect on both happiness and life satisfaction. This effect holds overall across countries, and for individuals within most income and class categories.

Keywords: inequality, happiness, life satisfaction

JEL Classification: I3

Suggested Citation

Macunovich, Diane, A Note on Inequality Aversion Across Countries, Using Two New Measures. IZA Discussion Paper No. 5734, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1855186 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1855186

Diane Macunovich (Contact Author)

University of Redlands ( email )

PO Box 3080
Redlands, CA 92373-0999
United States

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
92
Abstract Views
657
Rank
506,051
PlumX Metrics