摘要：In normative public economics it is crucial to know how fast the marginal
utility of income declines as income increases. One needs this parameter for
cost-benefit analysis, for optimal taxation and for the (Atkinson) measurement
of inequality. We estimate this parameter using four large cross-sectional
surveys of subjective happiness and two panel surveys. Altogether, the data
cover over 50 countries and time periods between 1972 and 2005. In each of the
six very different surveys, using a number of assumptions, we are able to
estimate the elasticity of marginal utility with respect to income. We obtain
very similar results from each survey. The highest (absolute) value is 1.34 and
the lowest is 1.19, with a combined estimate of 1.26. The results are also very
similar for subgroups in the population. We also examine whether these estimates
(which are based directly on the scale of reported happiness) could be biased
upwards if true utility is convex with respect to reported happiness. We find
some evidence of such bias, but it is small—yielding a new estimated elasticity
of 1.24 for the combined sample.
关键词：Marginal utility, income, life satisfaction, happiness, public economic,
welfare, inequality, optimal taxation, reference-dependent preferences
