摘要：In this paper, we revisit the association between happiness and inequality. We argue that the perceived
fairness of the income generation process affects this association. Building on a two-period model of
individual life-time utility maximization, we predict that persons with higher perceived fairness will
experience higher levels of life-time utility and are less in favor of income redistribution. In societies
with a high level of actual social mobility, income inequality is perceived more positively with
increased expected fairness. The opposite is expected for countries with low actual social mobility,
due to an increasing relevance of a disappointment effect resulting from unsuccessful individual
investments. Using the World Values Survey data and a broad set of fairness measures, we find strong
support for the negative (positive) association between fairness perceptions and the demand for more
equal incomes (subjective well-being). We also find strong empirical support for the disappointment
effect in low social mobility countries. In contrast, the results for high-mobility countries turn out to be
ambiguous.
关键词：Happiness, life satisfaction, subjective well-being, inequality, income distribution,
redistribution, political ideology, justice, fairness, World Values Survey
