How reliable and consistent are subjective measures of welfare in Europe and Central Asia?

Type Journal Article - Economics of Transition
Title How reliable and consistent are subjective measures of welfare in Europe and Central Asia?
Author(s)
Volume 23
Issue 1
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2015
Page numbers 75-103
URL http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2542390
Abstract
This paper analyses the reliability and consistency of subjective well-being measures, using the Life in Transition Survey. Drawing on two life satisfaction questions with alternative scales, our results do not reveal substantial biases in accounts of life satisfaction due to framing. Subjective individual assessments of household relative income position, on the other hand, do not appear to be reliable predictors of objective poverty or wealth. We find that subjective relative income position is only weakly correlated with objective welfare measures. There are differences in evaluations of the household's relative standing across different household members, and these differences are correlated with respondent characteristics.

Related studies

»