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Income comparisons among neighbours and life satisfaction in East and West Germany

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  • Knies, Gundi

Abstract

This paper draws on the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP) to investigate whether changes in others' income are perceived differently in post-transition and capitalist societies. We find that the neighbourhood income effect for West Germany is negative and slightly more marked in neighbourhoods where the neighbours interact socially. In contrast, the coefficients on neighbourhood income in East Germany are positive, but not statistically significant. This suggests not only that there is a divide between East and West Germany, but also that neighbours may not be a relevant comparison group in societies that have comparatively low levels of neighbouring.

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  • Knies, Gundi, 2010. "Income comparisons among neighbours and life satisfaction in East and West Germany," ISER Working Paper Series 2010-11, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ese:iserwp:2010-11
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    Cited by:

    1. Holger Stichnoth, 2013. "Reference standards for income comparisons: evidence from immigrants' return visits," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(4), pages 2707-2717.
    2. Nicole Oetke & Maria Norkus & Jan Goebel, 2023. "Assessing the Effects of District-Level Segregation on Meritocratic Beliefs in Germany," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-29, June.
    3. Xie, Runli, 2010. "Consumption growth and volatility with consumption externalities," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2010-057, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    4. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2010-057 is not listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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