Income and Happiness: New Results from Generalized Threshold and Sequential Models

No 1175, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Empirical studies on the relationship between income and happiness commonly use standard ordered response models, the most well-known representatives being the ordered logit and the ordered probit. However, these models restrict the marginal probability effects by design, and therefore limit the analysis of distributional aspects of a change in income, that is, the study of whether the income effect depend on a person's happiness. In this paper we pinpoint the shortcomings of standard models and propose two alternatives, namely generalized threshold and sequential models. With data of two waves of the German Socio- Economic Panel, 1984 and 1997, we show that the more general models yield different marginal probability effects than standard models.

Keywords: subjective well-being; ordered response models; marginal effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C25 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2004-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-lab and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (34)

Published - published in: Social Indicators Research, 2010, 95 (1), 111-128

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Working Paper: Income and Happiness: New Results from Generalized Threshold and Sequential Models (2004)
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