We develop and test a model of social comparison in which individuals gain status through pro-social behavior (competitive altruism) and in which they endogenously choose the reference group and associated reference standard involved in signaling status (reference group selection). In our...

We develop and test a model of social comparison in which individuals gain status through pro-social behavior (competitive altruism) and in which they endogenously choose the reference group and associated reference standard involved in signaling status (reference group selection). In our...

We develop and test a model of social comparison in which individuals gain status through pro-social behavior (competitive altruism) and in which they endogenously choose the reference group and associated reference standard involved in signaling status (reference group selection). In our...

We use survey data for 139,517 individuals in 26 European Countries, 2002-2011, to estimate the relationship between subjective well-being (SWB) and production shares of various types of electricity generation. The estimated relationships are taken to represent preference relationships over...

We test whether the relationship between subjective well-being (SWB) of European citizens and the structure of electricity supply has changed after the Fukushima nuclear accident of March 11, 2011. Survey data for about 124,000 individuals in 23 European countries reveal that while European...

Results of life satisfaction regressions for more than 91,000 individuals are used to investigate how the macroeconomic crisis of 2008-2009 has affected subjective well-being (SWB) in 30 OECD countries. In a number of countries, the effect of the crisis on a representative person’s SWB is of a...

Drawing on the distinction between envy and signaling effects in income comparison, this paper uses 307,465 observations for subjective well-being and its covariates from Germany, 1990-2009, to study whether the nature of income comparison has changed in the process of economic development, and...

We use data on the subjective well-being (SWB) of more than 91,000 individuals in 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to assess the well-being effects of unemployment, inflation and national income growth. The relationships found are used to...

Using subjective well-being data for more than 91,000 individuals in 30 OECD countries, 1990-2008, we study how people’s implicit aversion towards inflation varies with income and other socio-economic characteristics. While inflation aversion decreases with income, it increases with the...

The sustainable supply of energy is high on the agenda of many European countries. One of the pertinent issues, the future role of nuclear power, has gained increasing attention after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan. As a contribution to preference elicitation, we test whether the...