Satisfaction and comparison income
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors tried to test the hypothesis that utility depends on income relative to a "comparison" or reference level using data on 5,000 British workers and found that workers' reported satisfaction levels are inversely related to their comparison wage rates.
About: This article is published in Journal of Public Economics.The article was published on 1996-09-01 and is currently open access. It has received 2897 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Job satisfaction & Wage.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: This paper showed that if some people care about equity, the puzzles can be resolved and that the economic environment determines whether the fair types or the selesh types dominate equilibrium behavior in cooperative games.
Abstract: There is strong evidence that people exploit their bargaining power in competitivemarkets butnot inbilateral bargainingsituations. Thereisalsostrong evidence that people exploit free-riding opportunities in voluntary cooperation games. Yet, when they are given the opportunity to punish free riders, stable cooperation is maintained, although punishment is costly for those who punish. This paper asks whether there is a simple common principle that can explain this puzzling evidence. We show that if some people care about equity the puzzles can be resolved. It turns out that the economic environment determines whether the fair types or the selesh types dominate equilibrium behavior.
8,783 citations
TL;DR: This article showed that if a fraction of the people exhibit inequality aversion, stable cooperation is maintained although punishment is costly for those who punish, and they also showed that when they are given the opportunity to punish free riders, stable cooperations are maintained.
Abstract: There is strong evidence that people exploit their bargaining power in competitive markets but not in bilateral bargaining situations. There is also strong evidence that people exploit free-riding opportunities in voluntary cooperation games. Yet, when they are given the opportunity to punish free riders, stable cooperation is maintained although punishment is costly for those who punish. This paper asks whether there is a simple common principle that can explain this puzzling evidence. We show that if a fraction of the people exhibits inequality aversion the puzzles can be resolved.
6,919 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: The authors report how the economic variables income, unemployment and inflation affect happiness and how institutional factors, in particular the type of democracy and the extent of government decentralization, systematically influence how satisfied individuals are with their life.
Abstract: Over the past few years, there has been a steadily increasing interest on the part of economists in happiness research. We argue that reported subjective well-being is a satisfactory empirical approximation to individual utility and that happiness research is able to contribute important insights for economics. We report how the economic variables income, unemployment and inflation affect happiness as well as how institutional factors, in particular the type of democracy and the extent of government decentralization, systematically influence how satisfied individuals are with their life. We discuss some of the consequences for economic policy and for economic theory.
3,071 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that people often make choices that bear a mixed relationship to their own happiness, and that their choices do not necessarily reflect their "true" preferences, and an exclusive reliance on choices to infer what people desire loses some of its appeal.
Abstract: For good reasons, economists have had a long-standing preference for studying peoples' revealed preferences; that is, looking at individuals' actual choices and decisions rather than their stated intentions or subjective reports of likes and dislikes. Yet people often make choices that bear a mixed relationship to their own happiness. A large literature from behavioral economics and psychology finds that people often make inconsistent choices, fail to learn from experience, exhibit reluctance to trade, base their own satisfaction on how their situation compares with the satisfaction of others and depart from the standard model of the rational economic agent in other ways. If people display bounded rationality when it comes to maximizing utility, then their choices do not necessarily reflect their "true" preferences, and an exclusive reliance on choices to infer what people desire loses some of its appeal. Direct reports of subjective well-being may have a useful role in the measure
2,783 citations
Cites background from "Satisfaction and comparison income"
...Moreover, research finds that retrospective evaluations are relevant for some subsequent choices, so measures of satisfaction may be relevant for future decisions despite their shortcomings as a measure of real-time experience....
[...]
References
More filters
Book•
01 Jan 1954TL;DR: Perspectives on Sexuality Sex Research - an Overview Part 1.
Abstract: Perspectives on Sexuality Sex Research - an Overview Part 1. Biological Perspectives: Sexual Anatomy 1. Sexual Physiology 2. Human Reproduction 3. Birth Control 4. Abortion Part 2. Developmental Perspectives: Childhood Sexuality 5. Adolescent Sexuality 6. Adult Sexuality 7. Gender Roles Part 3. Psychological Perspectives: Loving and Being Loved 8. Intimacy and Communication Skills 9. Enhancing your Sexual Relationships 10. Sexual Orientation 11. Sexual Behaviour 12. Sexual Variations 13. Coercive Sex - the Varieties of Sexual Assault Part 4. Sexual Health Perspectives: Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Sexual Infections 14. HIV Infection and AIDS 15. Sexual Dysfunctions and Sex Therapy 16. Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health Part 5 Cultural Perspectives: Sex and the Law 17. Religious and Ethical Perspectives and Sexuality
21,163 citations
"Satisfaction and comparison income" refers background in this paper
...The large literature includes Bernstein and Crosby (1980), Crosby (1976), Crosby and Gonzales-Intal (1984), Davis (1959), Festinger (1954), Lawler (1971), Maslow (1970), Pollis (1968), Pritchard (1969), Veenhoven (1991), Walster, Walster and Berscheid (1973) and Weik (1966)....
[...]
TL;DR: In this article, the authors pointed out that there is a strong functional tie between opinions and abilities in humans and that the ability evaluation of an individual can be expressed as a comparison of the performance of a particular ability with other abilities.
Abstract: Hypothesis I: There exists, in the human organism, a drive to evaluate his opinions and his abilities. While opinions and abilities may, at first glance, seem to be quite different things, there is a close functional tie between them. They act together in the manner in which they affect behavior. A person’s cognition (his opinions and beliefs) about the situation in which he exists and his appraisals of what he is capable of doing (his evaluation of his abilities) will together have bearing on his behavior. The holding of incorrect opinions and/or inaccurate appraisals of one’s abilities can be punishing or even fatal in many situations. It is necessary, before we proceed, to clarify the distinction between opinions and evaluations of abilities since at first glance it may seem that one’s evaluation of one’s own ability is an opinion about it. Abilities are of course manifested only through performance which is assumed to depend upon the particular ability. The clarity of the manifestation or performance can vary from instances where there is no clear ordering criterion of the ability to instances where the performance which reflects the ability can be clearly ordered. In the former case, the evaluation of the ability does function like other opinions which are not directly testable in “objective reality’. For example, a person’s evaluation of his ability to write poetry will depend to a large extent on the opinions which others have of his ability to write poetry. In cases where the criterion is unambiguous and can be clearly ordered, this furnishes an objective reality for the evaluation of one’s ability so that it depends less on the opinions of other persons and depends more on actual comparison of one’s performance with the performance of others. Thus, if a person evaluates his running ability, he will do so by comparing his time to run some distance with the times that other persons have taken. In the following pages, when we talk about evaluating an ability, we shall mean specifically the evaluation of that ability in situations where the performance is unambiguous and is known. Most situations in real life will, of course, present situations which are a mixture of opinion and ability evaluation. In a previous article (7) the author posited the existence of a drive to determine whether or not one’s opinions were “correct”. We are here stating that this same drive also produces behavior in people oriented toward obtaining an accurate appraisal of their abilities. The behavioral implication of the existence of such a drive is that we would expect to observe behaviour on the part of persons which enables them to ascertain whether or not their opinions are correct and also behavior which enables them accurately to evaluate their abilities. It is consequently
16,927 citations
"Satisfaction and comparison income" refers background in this paper
...The large literature includes Bernstein and Crosby (1980), Crosby (1976), Crosby and Gonzales-Intal (1984), Davis (1959), Festinger (1954), Lawler (1971), Maslow (1970), Pollis (1968), Pritchard (1969), Veenhoven (1991), Walster, Walster and Berscheid (1973) and Weik (1966)....
[...]
TL;DR: The concept of relative deprivation and relative gratification as discussed by the authors are two major concepts relating to the perception of justice and injustice in social exchanges, and both of them can be used to describe the conditions that lead men to feel that their relations with others are just.
Abstract: Publisher Summary The process of exchange is almost continual in human interactions, and appears to have characteristics peculiar to itself, and to generate affect, motivation, and behavior that cannot be predicted unless exchange processes are understood. This chapter describes two major concepts relating to the perception of justice and injustice; the concept of relative deprivation and the complementary concept of relative gratification. All dissatisfaction and low morale are related to a person's suffering injustice in social exchanges. However, a significant portion of cases can be usefully explained by invoking injustice as an explanatory concept. In the theory of inequity, both the antecedents and consequences of perceived injustice have been stated in terms that permit quite specific predictions to be made about the behavior of persons entering social exchanges. Relative deprivation and distributive justice, as theoretical concepts, specify some of the conditions that arouse perceptions of injustice and complementarily, the conditions that lead men to feel that their relations with others are just. The need for much additional research notwithstanding, the theoretical analyses that have been made of injustice in social exchanges should result not only in a better general understanding of the phenomenon, but should lead to a degree of social control not previously possible. The experience of injustice need not be an accepted fact of life.
9,692 citations
01 Jan 1976
6,982 citations
"Satisfaction and comparison income" refers background in this paper
...Further evidence can be found in Bradburn and Noll (1969), Locke (1976) and Long et al (1982)....
[...]
...…House (1971) 7 (iv) Labour turnover Freeman (1978), McEvoy and Cascio (1985), Akerlof, Rose and Yellen (1988) (v) Absenteeism Clegg (1983) (vi) Counter- and non-productive work Mangione and Quinn (1975) Further evidence can be found in Bradburn and Noll (1969), Locke (1976) and Long et al (1982)....
[...]