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Article
Local Area Inequality and Worker Well-Being
Review of Social Economy (2012)
  • Michael Carr, University of Massachusetts Boston
Abstract

This paper uses General Social Survey data linked to Census data to investigate the effect of local area income and income inequality on worker well-being. Others have found a robust negative correlation between reference group income and self-reported well-being. However, in many cases the reference group is defined as a large geographic area. This paper adds to the literature in two ways. First, it considers multiple nested geographic reference groups with US data. Second, it explicitly considers income inequality in addition to the level of income. It is found that both income and income inequality are positively associated with well-being at the census tract level, but negatively associated at the county level. Further, the effect of inequality on well-being decreases as income increases at the census tract and county level, while it increases at the state level.

Keywords
  • subjective well-being,
  • inequality,
  • happiness,
  • satisfaction,
  • comparison income
Publication Date
2012
Citation Information
Michael Carr. "Local Area Inequality and Worker Well-Being" Review of Social Economy (2012)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/michael_carr/5/