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Rising aspirations dampen satisfaction

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  • Andrew E. Clark
  • Akiko Kamesaka
  • Teruyuki Tamura

Abstract

It is commonly believed that education is a good thing for individuals. Yet, its correlation with subjective well-being is most often only weakly positive, or even negative, despite the many associated better individual-level outcomes. We here square the circle using novel Japanese data on happiness aspirations. If reported happiness comes from a comparison of outcomes to aspirations, then any phenomenon raising both at the same time will have only a muted effect on reported well-being. We find that around half of the happiness effect of education is cancelled out by higher aspirations, and suggest a similar dampening effect for income.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew E. Clark & Akiko Kamesaka & Teruyuki Tamura, 2015. "Rising aspirations dampen satisfaction," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5), pages 515-531, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:edecon:v:23:y:2015:i:5:p:515-531
    DOI: 10.1080/09645292.2015.1042960
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Rising Aspirations Dampen Satisfaction By: Clark, Andrew E. ; Kamesaka, Akiko ; Tamura, Teruyuki
      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2015-07-30 22:28:00
    2. Random thoughts on happiness: how to be happy?
      by noname in ZeeConomics on 2015-07-22 13:16:39

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Colin P. Green & John S. Heywood & Parvinder Kler & Gareth Leeves, 2018. "Paradox Lost: The Disappearing Female Job Satisfaction Premium," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(3), pages 484-502, September.
    2. Zhidi Pan & Yan Wang & Zhijun Liu, 2025. "Over-Education, Job Satisfaction, and Intention to Quit: Evidence from China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 287-307, January.
    3. Clark, Andrew E. & Lee, Tom, 2021. "Early-life correlates of later-life well-being: Evidence from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 360-368.
    4. Rachit Dubey & Thomas L Griffiths & Peter Dayan, 2022. "The pursuit of happiness: A reinforcement learning perspective on habituation and comparisons," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(8), pages 1-32, August.
    5. Clark, Andrew E. & Senik, Claudia & Yamada, Katsunori, 2017. "When experienced and decision utility concur: The case of income comparisons," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1-9.
    6. Martin Binder, 2016. "Revisiting Cheerful Jane and Miserable John: the impact of income, good health, social contacts and education declines with increasing subjective well-being," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(8), pages 544-553, May.
    7. Maryam Dilmaghani, 2019. "Sexual orientation and the ‘cohabitation gap’ in life satisfaction in Canada," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1163-1189, December.
    8. Jeremy Heald & Erick Trevi~no Aguilar, 2020. "Does Subjective Well-being Contribute to Our Understanding of Mexican Well-being?," Papers 2004.11420, arXiv.org.
    9. Brunello, Giorgio, 2020. "Happier with Vocational Education?," IZA Discussion Papers 13739, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Bertermann, Alexander & Kamhöfer, Daniel A. & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah, 2023. "More Education Does Make You Happier – Unless You Are Unemployed," IZA Discussion Papers 16454, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Kristoffersen, Ingebjørg, 2018. "Great expectations: Education and subjective wellbeing," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 64-78.
    12. Neda Hashemi & Maryam Marzban & Bernadette Sebar & Neil Harris, 2021. "Perceived discrimination and subjective well-being among Middle Eastern migrants in Australia: The moderating role of perceived social support," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 67(2), pages 110-119, March.
    13. Giorgio Brunello & Piero Esposito & Lorenzo Rocco & Sergio Scicchitano, "undated". "Do Classical Studies Open your Mind?," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0312, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    14. Andrew E. Clark & Claudia Senik & Katsunori Yamada, 2022. "The Joneses in Japan: income comparisons and financial satisfaction," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 351-372, April.
    15. Samitha Udayanga, 2025. "When more means less: the declining happiness premium of higher education in wealthier countries," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, December.
    16. Lekfuangfu, Warn N. & Odermatt, Reto, 2022. "All I have to do is dream? The role of aspirations in intergenerational mobility and well-being," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    17. Pär Bjälkebring & Ellen Peters, 2021. "Money matters (especially if you are good at math): Numeracy, verbal intelligence, education, and income in satisfaction judgments," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(11), pages 1-18, November.

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