Negative emotions, income, and welfare: Causal estimates from the PSID

B-Tier
Journal: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Year: 2016
Volume: 130
Issue: C
Pages: 1-19

Score contribution per author:

2.018 = (α=2.02 / 1 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

I use instrumental variables to estimate the causal effect of family income on the frequency with which individuals experience negative emotions. Doubling income reduces the experience of negative emotions by 0.26 SD on average. Percentage changes in income have a constant effect on negative emotion for family incomes below $80,000. Above $80,000, the effect of percentage changes declines, reaching zero at $200,000. A dollar change in family income has an eight times larger effect at the 20th percentile of income than the 80th percentile. Effects of income are similar on the high levels of negative emotion characteristic of mental illness, except there is no satiation.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:jeborg:v:130:y:2016:i:c:p:1-19
Journal Field
Theory
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-25