Publication:
Feeling Poor, Feeling Rich, or Feeling Middle-Class: An Empirical Investigation

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorLebrand, Mathilde
dc.contributor.authorBussolo, Maurizio
dc.contributor.authorTorre, Ivan
dc.contributor.authorTorre, Iván
dc.date.accessioned2020-10-29T13:46:12Z
dc.date.available2020-10-29T13:46:12Z
dc.date.issued2020-10
dc.description.abstractBased on their objective economic situation and comparing with their peers, individuals form perceptions of their economic position in a society. Data from the three waves of the Life in Transition surveys of European countries show that these perceptions systematically deviate from the rankings obtained using consumption levels. People position themselves in the middle ranks in larger numbers than those who are in the middle ranks according to their consumption levels. Correspondingly, many people who objectively are classified in the top, richest, or bottom, poorest, ranks subjectively feel that they are in the middle class. This puzzling "bunching in the middle" is the focus of this paper. Explanations are tested and discarded that consider subjective perceptions as misperceptions or the result of other mistakes due to data limitations (such as tail bias). The paper concludes that rather than reflecting a subjective assessment of the distribution of welfare, subjective rankings reveal subjective economic well-being. The paper show that monetary consumption is a strong predictor of subjective economic well-being, but that the latter is influenced by many other factors, including economic security, proxied by employment status or other measures of human capital, such as health and education. These findings have policy relevance, since redistribution measures aiming at simply protecting consumption levels may not be sufficient to restore the economic well-being provided by having full-time secure types of employment.en
dc.identifierhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/939251603805617928/Feeling-Poor-Feeling-Rich-or-Feeling-Middle-Class-An-Empirical-Investigation
dc.identifier.doi10.1596/1813-9450-9456
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10986/34689
dc.languageEnglish
dc.publisherWorld Bank, Washington, DC
dc.relation.ispartofseriesPolicy Research Working Paper;No. 9456
dc.rightsCC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holderWorld Bank
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo
dc.subjectINEQUALITY
dc.subjectSUBJECTIVE RANKING
dc.subjectWELL-BEING
dc.subjectPOVERTY
dc.subjectMIDDLE CLASS
dc.subjectPERCEPTION
dc.subjectINCOME DISTRIBUTION
dc.subjectCONSUMPTION
dc.titleFeeling Poor, Feeling Rich, or Feeling Middle-Classen
dc.title.subtitleAn Empirical Investigationen
dc.typeWorking Paperen
dc.typeDocument de travailfr
dc.typeDocumento de trabajoes
dspace.entity.typePublication
okr.crossref.titleFeeling Poor, Feeling Rich, Or Feeling Middle-Class: An Empirical Investigation
okr.date.disclosure2020-10-27
okr.doctypePublications & Research
okr.doctypePublications & Research::Policy Research Working Paper
okr.docurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/939251603805617928/Feeling-Poor-Feeling-Rich-or-Feeling-Middle-Class-An-Empirical-Investigation
okr.guid939251603805617928
okr.identifier.doi10.1596/1813-9450-9456
okr.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-9456
okr.identifier.externaldocumentum090224b087f1c22d_1_0
okr.identifier.internaldocumentum32518865
okr.identifier.reportWPS9456
okr.importedtrueen
okr.language.supporteden
okr.pdfurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/939251603805617928/pdf/Feeling-Poor-Feeling-Rich-or-Feeling-Middle-Class-An-Empirical-Investigation.pdfen
okr.region.administrativeEurope and Central Asia
okr.region.geographicalCentral Asia
okr.region.geographicalEastern Europe
okr.region.geographicalEurope and Central Asia
okr.statistics.combined1571
okr.statistics.dr939251603805617928
okr.statistics.drstats1124
okr.topicMacroeconomics and Economic Growth::Consumption
okr.topicPoverty Reduction::Inequality
okr.topicPoverty Reduction::Living Standards
okr.topicSocial Development::Psychology
okr.unitOffice of the Chief Economist, Europe and Central Asia Region
relation.isAuthorOfPublication638d03a5-dedb-4a52-95ab-bcedc3fc5302
relation.isAuthorOfPublicationd0039343-97ad-5806-88d5-81b58fee8116
relation.isAuthorOfPublication875b80ce-8cab-4599-b1c8-407b5d81bb47
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscoveryd0039343-97ad-5806-88d5-81b58fee8116
relation.isSeriesOfPublication26e071dc-b0bf-409c-b982-df2970295c87
relation.isSeriesOfPublication.latestForDiscovery26e071dc-b0bf-409c-b982-df2970295c87
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Feeling-Poor-Feeling-Rich-or-Feeling-Middle-Class-An-Empirical-Investigation.pdf
Size:
593.19 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
Feeling-Poor-Feeling-Rich-or-Feeling-Middle-Class-An-Empirical-Investigation.txt
Size:
102.43 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download
Collections
Policy Research Working Papers