People not only obtain utility from actual outcomes but also from the conditionswhich lead to these outcomes. The paper proposes an economic concept of this notion ofprocedural utility. Preferences beyond outcome can be manifold. We distinguish proceduralutility people get from institutions as...

[...]This paper contributes to the identification of adaptive expectations by using ten years of panel data from the British Household Panel Survey to study the process of adaptation based on the individual’s own previous experience. Subjective assessments of financial well-being at time t,...

As their environment changes, migrants constitute an interesting group to study the effect of relative income on subjective well-being. This paper focuses on the huge population of rural-to-urban migrants in China. Using a novel dataset, we find that the well-being of migrants depends on several...

After having been ignored for a long time by economists, happiness is becoming an object of serious research in 21st century economics. In Section 2 we sketch the present status of happiness economics. In Section 3 we consider the practical applicability of happiness economics, retaining the...

Expectations and information about the growth of GDP per capita have a large influence on decisions made by private and public economic agents. It will be argued here that GDP (per capita) is far from a robust indicator of social welfare, and that its use as such must be regarded as a serious...

This paper uses Japanese data which includes measures of self-declared satisfaction, reference-group income, and the direction and intensity of income comparisons. Relative to Europeans, the Japanese compare more to friends and less to colleagues, and compare their incomes more. The relationship...

Do people care about income inequality and does income inequality affect subjective well-being? Welfare theories can predict either a positive or a negative impact of income inequality on subjective well-being and empirical research has found evidence on a positive, negative or non significant...

In Deutschland wird eine Debatte über die Dynamik der wirtschaftlichen Ungleichheit, über ihre Folgen und über die Frage, wie die Ungleichheit – so sie für zu hoch befunden wird – abgesenkt werden soll, geführt. Dabei steht meist die Einkommensungleichheit im Mittelpunkt. Diese ist gut...

Die Debatte um (andere) Indikatoren zur Messung gesellschaftlicher Wohlfahrt und eines "guten Lebens" hat in den vergangenen Jahren deutlich an Fahrt aufgenommen. Und das nicht nur auf Bundesebene. Auch auf der Ebene der Bundesländer wächst die Nachfrage nach solchen Indikatoren. Im Rahmen...