Is inequality in subjective well-being meritocratic? Danish evidence from linked survey and administrative data

Arbeitspapier

This paper decomposes inequality in subjective well-being into inequality due to socioeconomic background (SEB) and meritocratic inequality due to differences in individual merits such as school performance. We measure the meritocratic share of well-being, defined as the share of explained variation in life satisfaction attributable to variation in merits not related to SEB. The empirical evidence from Denmark combines survey information on well-being with administrative data on individual characteristics. We find systematic differences in wellbeing already in early adulthood, where differences in economic outcomes are not yet visible. At age 18-19, about 40 percent of the inequality in well-being is meritocratic. The role of merits rises to 65-85 percent in midlife (age 40-55), where it is also higher than the role of merits in income inequality. The positive conclusions that inequality in well-being is more meritocratic than income inequality and more meritocratic as people grow older get support by corresponding results using an equal opportunity approach.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CEBI Working Paper Series ; No. 10/22

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; General Welfare; Well-Being ; Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion ; Distribution: General ; Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
• Subject: Subjective well-being ; inequality ; intergenerational mobility

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Kreiner, Claus Thustrup ; Olufsen, Isabel Skak
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Copenhagen, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI)
• (where): Copenhagen
• (when): 2022

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/268914
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET