Social status and the relationship between income rank and well-being in 109 nations

Edika Quispe-Torreblanca, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and Gordon D. A. Brown

Abstract

Well-being is linked to income. However, lower well-being among lower-income individuals may reflect either economic relative deprivation or the lower social status associated with a lower income rank. Here, using Gallup World Poll data from 109 countries and over 90,000 individuals, we test a general model that includes both relative income deprivation and income rank as special cases. In 80% of countries, subjective well-being is more strongly associated with within-nation rank of income than with absolute income or relative income deprivation. Income rank coefficients are over three times larger in the most materialistic countries, but smaller in countries with higher social capital: In countries with the highest civic engagement, the association between income rank and well-being is about 80% smaller. Results replicated in multiple survey years and are consistent with a link between income-related social status and subjective well-being that is stronger when social capital is low.