With whom do we compare our income? The effect of gendered income comparisons on subjective well-being
Laura Ravazzini & Marcin Piekalkiewicz
| Résumé |
Income comparisons are often performed through the construction of
reference groups. These groups are highly dependent on the
sociodemographic characteristics collected by survey data. Gender
is usually included in these characteristics only when the number
of cases is large enough to have separate samples for women and
men. So far, there has been no empirical proof on the fact that
comparisons are within or between people of the same sex. With the
support of specific questions collected in three waves of the
pretest of the German Socio-Economic Panel, this study analyses
income comparisons within and between gender groups. Results
suggest that income comparisons are mainly within people of the
same sex. On average, women compare more than men independently
from the gender composition of the sector of employment. Despite
the predominance of within-gender comparisons, between-gender
comparisons exist. Regressions that test the effect of income
comparisons and reference groups on subjective well-being are
indeed better explained when gender is not included as a
characteristic for the construction of reference groups. |
| Mots-clés |
Gender - Income comparisons - Reference groups - Employment sectors - Subjective well-being |
| Citation | Ravazzini, L., & Piekalkiewicz , M. (2019). With whom do we compare our income? The effect of gendered income comparisons on subjective well-being. In A. Bianco, P. Conigliaro, & M. Gnaldi (Eds.) Italian Studies on Quality of Life. (Vol. 77, pp. 145-164). The Nethederlands: Springer. |
| Type | Chapitre de livre (Anglais) |
| Année | 2019 |
| Editeur | Adele Bianco, Paola Conigliaro, Michela Gnaldi |
| Titre du livre | Italian Studies on Quality of Life |
| Editeur commercial | Springer (The Nethederlands) |
| Volume | 77 |
| Pages | 145-164 |
| Titre de la collection | Social Indicators Research Series |