Arbeitspapier
Is inequality in subjective well-being meritocratic? Danish evidence from linked survey and administrative data
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.
- Sprache
-
Englisch
- Erschienen in
-
Series: CEBI Working Paper Series ; No. 10/22
General Welfare; Well-Being
Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
Distribution: General
Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
inequality
intergenerational mobility
Olufsen, Isabel Skak
- Handle
- Letzte Aktualisierung
-
20.09.2024, 08:23 MESZ
Objekttyp
- Arbeitspapier
Beteiligte
- Kreiner, Claus Thustrup
- Olufsen, Isabel Skak
- University of Copenhagen, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI)
Entstanden
- 2022
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