Authors: Takashi Oshio Kayo Nozaki Miki Kobayashi
Publish Date: 2010/11/24
Volume: 104, Issue: 3, Pages: 351-367
Abstract
This study attempts to examine relative income effects on perceived happiness in three major Asian countries—China Japan and Korea—in comparison with the United Sates on the basis of largely comparable nationwide surveys in these countries Consistent with the results from previous studies in Western countries comparisons with an individual’s own income and average income of the reference group are significantly associated with the individual’s perceived happiness in Asia The associations between relative income and happiness are stronger for individual income than family income in China while the opposite is true in Japan and Korea Even after controlling for the subjective assessment of family income or personal class identification within the society as a whole income comparisons within the reference group matter for assessing happiness especially when using family income for comparisons Moreover relative deprivation within the reference group which is measured by the Yitzhaki index is negatively related to happiness providing more evidence for the validity of the relative income hypothesisThe data for this paper were downloaded from the East Asian Social Survey Data Archive EASSDA after obtaining the necessary permission The East Asian Social Survey EASS is based on the Chinese General Social Survey CGSS Japanese General Social Survey JGSS Korean General Social Survey KGSS and Taiwan Social Change Survey TSCS and distributed by the EASSDA We are grateful for the financial support provided by GrantinAid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas 21119004 GrantinAid for Specially Promoted Research 22000001 and GrantinAid for Scientific Research B 21330057 from Japan’s Ministry of Education Culture Sports Science and Technology
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