Why Wealth Matters More Than Income for Subjective Well-being?

The links between economic prosperity and subjective well-being was one of the first ones to be investigated, ever since the latter has been measured. For convenience and availability matters, income (what people earn) was mostly used at the individual level. It is only since recently that data about wealth (what people possess) is available and the links between wealth and SWB are studied since about a decade. These results show an unambiguous positive link between wealth and SWB. In most cases, wealth is more important than income from the perspective of SWB. Theoretical and empirical reasons are reviewed in this chapter.