Why is greater income inequality associated with lower life satisfaction and poorer health? Evidence from the European Quality of Life Survey, 2012
Article
Nettle, D. and Dickins, T. 2022. Why is greater income inequality associated with lower life satisfaction and poorer health? Evidence from the European Quality of Life Survey, 2012. The Social Science Journal. https://doi.org/10.1080/03623319.2022.2117888
Type | Article |
---|---|
Title | Why is greater income inequality associated with lower life satisfaction and poorer health? Evidence from the European Quality of Life Survey, 2012 |
Authors | Nettle, D. and Dickins, T. |
Abstract | Greater income inequality is associated with lower average wellbeing. There are multiple possible explanations for this pattern. We use data from the European Quality of Life Survey 2012 (27,571 respondents from 28 countries) to evaluate the contributions of different causal pathways to associations between national income inequality and wellbeing. In unadjusted analyses, greater income inequality was associated with lower life satisfaction and poorer self-rated health. For life satisfaction, 43% of the association was attributable to individual income effects, and 41% to worse public services (especially access to healthcare). The association between income inequality and self-rated health was mainly (68%) due to individual income effects. For life satisfaction but not self-rated health, we found some evidence of costs of inequality that fall on those with high incomes. We conclude that the negative associations between income inequality and wellbeing across European countries are substantially, but not entirely, due to individual income effects. |
Keywords | Inequality; Poverty; Life satisfaction; Wellbeing; Public services |
Sustainable Development Goals | 10 Reduced inequalities |
Middlesex University Theme | Health & Wellbeing |
Research Group | Behavioural Biology group |
Publisher | Taylor & Francis (Routledge) |
Journal | The Social Science Journal |
ISSN | 0362-3319 |
Electronic | 1873-5355 |
Publication dates | |
Online | 09 Sep 2022 |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 09 Sep 2022 |
Submitted | 24 May 2022 |
Accepted | 02 Aug 2022 |
Output status | In press |
Publisher's version | License |
Copyright Statement | © 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1080/03623319.2022.2117888 |
Web of Science identifier | WOS:000852201900001 |
Language | English |
Page range | 1-12 |
https://repository.mdx.ac.uk/item/89z74
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