Well-being, life satisfaction, income, Big Five personality, SOEP

Abstract: What happens to an individual’s well-being when their income reduces? Recent psychological evidence shows that income reductions have a much greater association with well-being changes than equivalent gains. Here we use the German Socio-Economic Panel Survey from 2005 to 2012, which contains Big Five personality measures in 2005 for more than 10,000 individuals, to examine whether the influence of income reductions and gains on life satisfaction differ by personality type. Preliminary multilevel analyses, controlling for a multitude of correlated covariates, suggest that whilst there are clear differences between income losses and gains at the average there are also significant differences by personality. This paper will be presented as part of the special session on “well-being, social capital, and income change”. Keywords: Well-being, life satisfaction, income, Big Five personality, SOEP

This media entry was a contribution to the special session "Well being, social capital and income change" at the 4th International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig in 2014.