Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/149801 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research No. 885
Publisher: 
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin
Abstract: 
Previous research has found that subjective well-being (SWB) is lower for individuals classified as being in poverty. Using panel data for 39,239 individuals living in Germany from 2005-2013, we show that people's SWB is negatively correlated with the state-level poverty ratio while controlling for individual poverty status and poverty intensity. The negative relationship between aggregate poverty and SWB is more salient in the upper segments of the income distribution and is robust to controlling for the rate of unemployment and per capita GDP. The character of poverty as a public bad suggests that poverty alleviation is a matter not only of equity, but of efficiency.
Subjects: 
poverty
poverty ratio
subjective well-being
public bad
life satisfaction
JEL: 
I31
I32
D60
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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