IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v132y2017i1d10.1007_s11205-015-1153-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Marginal Utility and Economic Development: Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Aspirations and Subjective Well-Being Among Chinese Employees

Author

Listed:
  • Matthew J. Monnot

    (University of San Francisco)

Abstract

The post-1979 economic reforms have led to impressive economic growth in China both in terms of gross domestic product and individual income. Individual well-being, however, has not increased on par with the economy (Brockmann et al. in J Happiness Stud 10(4):387–405, 2009; Easterlin et al. in Proc Natl Acad Sci 109(25):9775–9780, 2012). In the current series of studies, traditional and multilevel regression models are applied to examine the relationship between income and employee well-being. Results suggest a curvilinear relationship between income and satisfaction (both with one’s job and one’s income), supporting a diminishing marginal utility effect. Additionally, confirming a central postulate of Goal Contents Theory (GCT), individuals who espoused the importance of income (an extrinsic motive) were less satisfied with income itself. Further examining the application of GCT in a Chinese context, results suggest individuals who value extrinsic motives (i.e., money, possessions, fame) exhibit lower levels of job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and feelings of accomplishment. Finally, there is a significant multilevel effect such that between-city levels of health have a significant positive relationship with life satisfaction. These results offer organizational and policy implications related to the interaction between economic prosperity and human development.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew J. Monnot, 2017. "Marginal Utility and Economic Development: Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Aspirations and Subjective Well-Being Among Chinese Employees," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 155-185, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:132:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s11205-015-1153-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-015-1153-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-015-1153-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-015-1153-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angus Deaton, 2008. "Income, Health, and Well-Being around the World: Evidence from the Gallup World Poll," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(2), pages 53-72, Spring.
    2. Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers, 2013. "Subjective Well-Being and Income: Is There Any Evidence of Satiation?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 598-604, May.
    3. Peter Schmuck & Tim Kasser & Richard Ryan, 2000. "Intrinsic and Extrinsic Goals: Their Structure and Relationship to Well-Being in German and U.S. College Students," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 225-241, May.
    4. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2002. "What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 402-435, June.
    5. Christoph Lakner & Branko Milanovic, 2016. "Global Income Distribution: From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to the Great Recession," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 30(2), pages 203-232.
    6. Ed Diener & Robert Biswas-Diener, 2002. "Will Money Increase Subjective Well-Being?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 119-169, February.
    7. Ruut Veenhoven, 1991. "Is happiness relative?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 1-34, February.
    8. David A Ralston & Carolyn P Egri & Sally Stewart & Robert H Terpstra & Yu Kaicheng, 1999. "Doing Business in the 21st Century with the New Generation of Chinese Managers: A Study of Generational Shifts in Work Values in China," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 30(2), pages 415-427, June.
    9. Tamás Martos & Mária Kopp, 2012. "Life Goals and Well-Being: Does Financial Status Matter? Evidence from a Representative Hungarian Sample," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 105(3), pages 561-568, February.
    10. Krzysztof Zagorski & Mariah Evans & Jonathan Kelley & Katarzyna Piotrowska, 2014. "Does National Income Inequality Affect Individuals’ Quality of Life in Europe? Inequality, Happiness, Finances, and Health," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(3), pages 1089-1110, July.
    11. Krzysztof Zagorski & Mariah Evans & Jonathan Kelley & Katarzyna Piotrowska, 2014. "Erratum to: Does National Income Inequality Affect Individuals’ Quality of Life in Europe? Inequality, Happiness, Finances, and Health," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 939-939, September.
    12. Easterlin, Richard A. & Morgan, Robson & Switek, Maggie & Wang, Fei, 2013. "China's Life Satisfaction, 1990-2010," IZA Discussion Papers 7196, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Hang Ngo & Sharon Foley & Ming Ji & Raymond Loi, 2014. "Work Satisfaction of Chinese Employees: A Social Exchange and Gender-Based View," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(2), pages 457-473, April.
    14. Hilke Brockmann & Jan Delhey & Christian Welzel & Hao Yuan, 2009. "The China Puzzle: Falling Happiness in a Rising Economy," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 387-405, August.
    15. Meyer, John P. & Gagnè, Maryléne, 2008. "Employee Engagement From a Self-Determination Theory Perspective," Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 60-62, March.
    16. Sandra K Smith Speck & Abhijit Roy, 2008. "The interrelationships between television viewing, values and perceived well-being: A global perspective," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 39(7), pages 1197-1219, October.
    17. Tom A. B. Snijders & Roel J. Bosker, 1994. "Modeled Variance in Two-Level Models," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 22(3), pages 342-363, February.
    18. Ed Diener & Ed Sandvik & Larry Seidlitz & Marissa Diener, 1993. "The relationship between income and subjective well-being: Relative or absolute?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 195-223, March.
    19. Wong, Nancy & Rindfleisch, Aric & Burroughs, James E, 2003. "Do Reverse-Worded Items Confound Measures in Cross-Cultural Consumer Research? The Case of the Material Values Scale," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 30(1), pages 72-91, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Matthew J. Monnot & Terry A. Beehr, 2022. "The Good Life Versus the “Goods Life”: An Investigation of Goal Contents Theory and Employee Subjective Well-Being Across Asian Countries," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1215-1244, March.
    2. Jesús Unanue & Xavier Oriol & Juan Carlos Oyanedel & Andrés Rubio & Wenceslao Unanue, 2021. "Gratitude at Work Prospectively Predicts Lower Workplace Materialism: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study in Chile," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-17, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthew J. Monnot & Terry A. Beehr, 2022. "The Good Life Versus the “Goods Life”: An Investigation of Goal Contents Theory and Employee Subjective Well-Being Across Asian Countries," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1215-1244, March.
    2. Hania Wu & Tony Tam, 2015. "Economic Development and Socioeconomic Inequality of Well-Being: A Cross-Sectional Time-Series Analysis of Urban China, 2003–2011," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(2), pages 401-425, November.
    3. Dmitrij Minkin & Victoria Reyes-García, 2017. "Income and Wellbeing in a Society on the Verge to Market Integration: The Case of the Tsimane’ in the Bolivian Amazon," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 993-1011, August.
    4. Olivia S. Jin & Phanindra V. Wunnava, 2023. "“Feeling richer and happier? The effect of self-perceived economic welfare on life satisfaction: longitudinal evidence from a transition economy”," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 1-19, March.
    5. Ingebjørg Kristoffersen, 2010. "The Metrics of Subjective Wellbeing: Cardinality, Neutrality and Additivity," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 86(272), pages 98-123, March.
    6. Mikucka, Malgorzata & Sarracino, Francesco & Dubrow, Joshua K., 2017. "When Does Economic Growth Improve Life Satisfaction? Multilevel Analysis of the Roles of Social Trust and Income Inequality in 46 Countries, 1981–2012," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 447-459.
    7. Joanne Haddad & Jad Chaaban & Ali Chalak & Hala Ghattas, 2022. "Does Income Class Affect Life Satisfaction? New Evidence from Cross-Country Microdata," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-23, June.
    8. AMENDOLA, Adalgiso & DELL'ANNO, Roberto & PARISI, Lavinia, 2015. "Happiness, Inequality and Relative Concerns in European Countries," CELPE Discussion Papers 136, CELPE - CEnter for Labor and Political Economics, University of Salerno, Italy.
    9. Voerman-Tam, Diana & Grimes, Arthur & Watson, Nicholas, 2023. "The economics of free speech: Subjective wellbeing and empowerment of marginalized citizens," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 260-274.
    10. Clingingsmith, David, 2016. "Negative Emotions, Income, and Welfare: Casual Estimates from the PSID," SocArXiv fae4x, Center for Open Science.
    11. Jiayuan Li & John Raine, 2014. "The Time Trend of Life Satisfaction in China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(2), pages 409-427, April.
    12. T. Lakshmanasamy & K. Maya, 2020. "The Effect of Income Inequality on Happiness Inequality in India: A Recentered Influence Function Regression Estimation and Life Satisfaction Inequality Decomposition," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 14(2), pages 161-181, August.
    13. Clingingsmith, David, 2017. "Negative Emotions, Income, and Welfare: Causal Estimates from the PSID," SocArXiv q2mxt, Center for Open Science.
    14. Ruta, Danny & Camfield, Laura & Donaldson, Cam, 2007. "Sen and the art of quality of life maintenance: Towards a general theory of quality of life and its causation," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 397-423, June.
    15. Rocío Calvo & Felix Cheung, 2018. "Does Money Buy Immigrant Happiness?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 1657-1672, August.
    16. Asadullah, M. Niaz & Xiao, Saizi & Yeoh, Emile, 2018. "Subjective well-being in China, 2005–2010: The role of relative income, gender, and location," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 83-101.
    17. Tahir Mahmood, 2023. "He said, she said: Unpacking the determinants of Pakistan’s Intra-household gender differences," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 213-237, February.
    18. Jiawen Ding & Javier Salinas-Jiménez & Maria del Mar Salinas-Jiménez, 2021. "The Impact of Income Inequality on Subjective Well-Being: The Case of China," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 845-866, February.
    19. Nicholas Otis, 2017. "Subjective Well-Being in China: Associations with Absolute, Relative, and Perceived Economic Circumstances," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 885-905, June.
    20. Zhifang Su & Jr‐Tsung Huang & Arthur Jin Lin, 2021. "House price expectations, mortgages, and subjective well‐being in urban China," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 1540-1562, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:132:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s11205-015-1153-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.