The Subjective Well-Being of Those Vulnerable to Poverty in Switzerland

This paper aims to examine the impact of being in a specific economic position, namely, being vulnerable to poverty, on people’s level of subjective well-being. Research usually focus on the top or at the bottom of the income distribution, but rarely on those in an in-between position. While the concept of poverty has been widely explored and analysed, people being vulnerable to poverty and who are struggling to maintain a certain standard of living are often neglected. This fact is probably due to the heterogeneous definition of those being vulnerable or the concept of vulnerability itself. Following the vulnerability to poverty approach, this paper estimates the effect of being in this adjacent position on the level of subjective well-being. The main hypothesis is that, people being vulnerable will report a lower level of subjective well-being compared to those in a secured position, but will be better off compared to those in poverty. Results do confirm our hypothesis, as the level of self-reported satisfaction with life is lower than the reference group for those being vulnerable to poverty, but not compared to those in poverty. However, the difference between the two groups is very small and tend to indicate similar subjective well-being. This result raise several questions and may translate how people being vulnerable to poverty feel left behind.