IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-23-00533.html

Comparison income and subjective well-being: Evidence from a nationwide panel survey in Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Kenichi Shiraishi

    (Faculty of Social Welfare, Gunma University of Health and Welfare)

  • Kazuto Sumita

    (Faculty of Economics, Toyo University)

  • Kazuki Kamimura

    (Faculty of Economics, Toyo University)

  • Shohei Okamoto

    (Department of Policy and Planning Sciences, University of Tsukuba)

  • Kohei Komamura

    (Faculty of Economics, Keio University)

Abstract

This study conducts a social comparison of income in Japan and is the first to consider geographical distance in relation to comparison income. The results of a fixed-effects ordered logit model analysis show that comparison income is negatively correlated with life satisfaction. Therefore, our study provides evidence for the relative income hypothesis. Furthermore, income comparison is not symmetric, in line with the idea proposed by Duesenberry in 1949. Therefore, individuals may feel a sense of relative deprivation when others earn a higher income. Conversely, there is a lack of relative satisfaction when others earn a lower income. These findings indicate that policies promoting the equitable distribution of economic resources can potentially enhance the well-being of the Japanese population.

Suggested Citation

  • Kenichi Shiraishi & Kazuto Sumita & Kazuki Kamimura & Shohei Okamoto & Kohei Komamura, 2026. "Comparison income and subjective well-being: Evidence from a nationwide panel survey in Japan," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 46(2), pages 415-428.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-23-00533
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2026/Volume46/EB-26-V46-I2-P36.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ebl:ecbull:eb-23-00533. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.