Income, aspirations and the hedonic treadmill in a poor society

Working paper

Abstract:: A specially designed household survey for rural China is used to analyse the determinants of aspirations for income, proxied by reported minimum income need, and the determinants of subjective well-being, both satisfaction with life and satisfaction with income. It is found that aspiration income is a positive function of actual income and reference income, and that subjective well-being is raised by actual income but lowered by aspiration income. These findings suggests the existence of a partial hedonic treadmill, and can help to explain why subjective well-being in China appears not to have risen despite rapid economic growth.

Files:: paper468.pdf

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Keywords:: adaptation

hedonic treadmill

happiness

Easterlin paradox

aspirations

China

subjective well-being
Pubs id:: 1143364
Local pid:: pubs:1143364
Deposit date:: 2020-12-14
ARK identifier:: ark:/29072/ora_3f88e072d8e449c98b7b19db4fa206b2

Licence:: Terms and Conditions of Use for Oxford University Research Archive

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