Happiness and relative income in the UK
This is a project designed to study happiness in the UK and to observe why happiness changes over time and what can cause this change.
Description of the Project
This is a project designed to study happiness in the UK and to observe why happiness changes over time and what can cause this change.
The study focuses particularly on the role that relative earnings/income plays in reported happiness. It has been found in some of the economics literature that a person's relative position is at least as and sometimes more, important to happiness and well-being than their own earnings. The importance here is finding which person or group has the most impact on a person's happiness. Is it fellow members of a club, fellow workers or neighbours? We will aim to test this. Of more interest is whether the individual's perceptions and the reality of these reference groups differ in any great way and whether some happiness is based on misperceptions. The study also hopes to look at the wider issue of growing income inequality in the UK and national happiness in the wake of the financial crisis.
Secure Data Service dataset in use:
Researcher
Dr Timothy Hinks, University of the West of England