A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä
Which Reference Groups Matter and How? A Relative Income Information Experiment with Administrative Data
Tekijät: Xu, Xiaogeng; Metsälampi, Satu; Kirchler, Michael; Kotakorpi, Kaisa; Matthews, Peter Hans; Miettinen, Topi
Kustantaja: American Economic Association
Julkaisuvuosi: 2025
Lehti: American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
ISSN: 1945-7782
eISSN: 1945-7790
Julkaisun avoimuus kirjaamishetkellä: Ei avoimesti saatavilla
Julkaisukanavan avoimuus : Ei avoin julkaisukanava
Verkko-osoite: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20240181
Received wisdom holds that income rank matters for life satisfaction, but causal evidence on the nature and impact of income comparisons is limited. We randomize individuals from a representative sample of mid-career Finns to receive personal rank information from one of several reference groups. We find strong
evidence of the effect of rank information on income satisfaction, but weaker effects on life satisfaction, and some evidence of real effects in experimental and administrative data. Effects are strong in narrow reference groups and weak and insignificant in the national one. Finally, we discuss the implications for income transparency policies.
Julkaisussa olevat rahoitustiedot:
We acknowledge the financial support from The Academy of Finland, project (grant no. 332550), Finnish Centre of Excellence in Tax Systems Research / Academy of Finland (grant no. 346250), the Austrian Science Fund (FWF, project SFB F6310), Finnish Cultural Foundation (grant no. 00210723) and the Yrj¨o Jahnsson Foundation (grant no. 20177011).
