The vulnerability aspect of happiness: The European middle class perspective - JRC Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2023/5
This paper evaluates the importance of middle class vulnerability to poverty for subjective well-being (happiness) in European countries. Using the special module of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions micro-data on well-being and national aggregates from the World Happiness Report, the vulnerability indicator used is shown to be statistically significant for happiness perceptions at both the individual and aggregate levels. At the micro level, the economic importance of income vulnerability for the middle class is on a par with (or even greater than) economic factors such as severe material deprivation, difficulty of finding a job, or the acute financial burden of housing or debt repayments. The aggregate income vulnerability of the middle class is also one of the most significant factors affecting national happiness, along with gross domestic product per capita and perceptions of corruption. The results indicate that anxiety related to the (severe) downside risk of income has large costs in terms of happiness. They therefore support the development of policies to reduce income uncertainty.
BENCZUR Peter;
KVEDARAS Virmantas;
2023-05-26
European Commission
JRC132978
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC132978,
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