Socio-economic inequality and altruism
Keywords:
inequality, altruism, charity, views of income inequality.
Abstract
The article addresses the attitudes to inequality in the Russian society depending on the role of the individual in a reference group. It is shown that people are ready to accept significant income inequality if they believe that the income is well earned. No correlation was found between subjective well-being and inequality. The vast majority of people compare themselves with friends, neighbours and relatives. The next most important reference group is colleagues, followed by celebrities. The rejection of representatives of lower social classes is negatively correlated with life satisfaction. At the same time, the respondents expressed willingness to build a society where, having due means, people would organise help to those who cannot provide for themselves.
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References
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Ricard, M. (2016). Altruism: The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself And The World. New York: Back Bay Books.
Vishnever, V.Y., Burganov, R.A., & Nusratullin, I.V. (2019). Institutional transformations in the field of services in digital economy. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (International Scientific Conference Global Challenges and Prospects of the Modern Economic Development (GCPMED 2018), 57, 1759-1768. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.03.178
Andreoni, J. (1989). Giving with Impure Altruism: Applications to Charity and Ricardian Equivalence. Journal of Political Economy, 97(6), 1447-1458. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1833247
Bloch, F., Rao, V., & Desai, S. (2004). Wedding Celebrations as Conspicuous Consumption: Signaling Social Status in Rural India. The Journal of Human Resources, 39 (3), 675-695. https://doi.org/10.2307/3558992
Boehm, J.K., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2009). The promise of sustainable happiness. In: The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology (2 ed.). Edited by Shane J. Lopez and C.R. Snyder. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195187243.013.0063
Bossert, W., D'Ambrosio, C., & Peragine, V. (2007). Deprivation and Social Exclusion, Economica, 74(296), 777–803. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4541571
Brown, G., Gardner, J., Oswald, A.J., & Qian, J. (2008). Does Wage Rank Affect Employees' Well-being? Industrial Relations, 47(3), 355 - 389. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-232X.2008.00525.x
Brown, P.H., Bulte, E., & Zhang, X. (2011). Positional Spending and Status Seeking in Rural China. Journal of Development Economics, 96(1), 139–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2010.05.007
Card, D., Mas, A., Moretti, E., & Saez, E. (2012). Inequality at Work: The Effect of Peer Salaries on Job Satisfaction. American Economic Review, 102(6), 2981–3003. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.102.6.2981
Carpenter, J.P., & Myers, C.K. (2010). Why volunteer? Evidence on the role of altruism, reputation, and incentives. Journal of Public Economics, 94(11-12), 911–920. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1014584
Clark, A.E., & Oswald, A.J. (1996). Satisfaction and Comparison Income. Journal of Public Economics, 61(3), 359–381. https://doi.org/10.1016/0047-2727(95)01564-7
Clark, A.E., & Senik, C. (2010). Who Compares to Whom? The Anatomy of Income Comparisons in Europe. Economic Journal, 120(544), 573–594. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2010.02359.x
D'Ambrosio, C., & Frick, J. R. (2007). Income satisfaction and relative deprivation: An empirical link. Social Indicators Research, 81(3), 497–519. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-006-0020-0
D'Ambrosio, C., & Frick, J.R. (2012). Individual Well-Being in a Dynamic Perspective. Economica, 79(314), 284–302. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41426535
Dunn, E.W., Aknin, L.B., & Norton, M.I. (2008). Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness. Science, 319(5870), 1687-1688. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1150952
Easterlin, R. A., McVey, L. A., Switek, M., Sawangfa, O., & Zweig, J. S. (2010). The happiness–income paradox revisited. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(52), 22463–22468. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1015962107
Ferrer–i–Carbonell, A. (2005). Income and Well–being: an Empirical Analysis of the Comparison Income Effect. Journal of Public Economics, 89(5-6), 997–1019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2004.06.003
Heffetz, O. (2011). A Test of Conspicuous Consumption: Visibility and Income Elasticities. Review of Economics and Statistics, 93(4), 1101–1117. https://doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00116
Hirschman, A. O., & Rothschild, M. (1973). The Changing Tolerance for Income Inequality in the Course of Economic Development. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 87(4), 544–566. https://doi.org/10.2307/1882024
Kiffin-Petersen, S., Murphy, S.A., & Soutar, G. (2012). The problem-solving service worker: Appraisal mechanisms and positive affective experiences during customer interactions. Human Relations, 65(9), 1179-1206. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726712451762
Konow, J. (2010). Mixed feelings: Theories of and evidence on giving. Journal of Public Economics, 94(3-4), 279-297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2009.11.008
Konow, J., & Earley, J. (2008). The Hedonistic Paradox: Is Homo Economicus Happier? Journal of Public Economics, 92(1-2), 1-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2007.04.006
Kranton, R., Pease, M., Sanders, S., & Huettel, S. (2013). Identity, Groups, and Social Preferences. Durham: Duke University. https://sites.duke.edu/rachelkranton/files/2016/09/identitygroupconfictfinaloctober142013.original.pdf
Kuhn, P., Kooreman, P., Soetevent, A., & Kapteyn, A. (2011). The Effects of Lottery Prizes on Winners and their Neighbors: Evidence from the Dutch Postcode Lottery. American Economic Review, 101(5), 2226–2247. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.101.5.2226
Luttmer, E.F.P. (2005). Neighbors as Negatives: Relative Earnings and Well–Being. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 120(3), 963–1002. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/120.3.963
Maki, А., & Snyder, М. (2015). Investigating Similarities and Differences Between Volunteer Behaviors: Development of a Volunteer Interest Typology. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 46(1), 5-28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764015619703
Mas, A. (2006). Pay, Reference Points, and Police Performance. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 121(3), 783–821. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25098809
Merton, R.K., & Rossi, A.S. (1968). Contributions to the Theory of Reference Group Behaviour. In: Merton, R.K.: Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: The Free Press. https://www.suz.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:00000000-7fb2-5367-ffff-ffffbbe8d0cb/05.02_merton_reference-group-theory.pdf
Nusratullin, I.V., Nusratullin, W.K., Gaysina, A.V., & Habibullin, R.G. (2019). Modern global trends of social and economic systems. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (Conference on Social and Cultural Transformations in the Context of Modern Globalism (SCTCGM 2018)), 58, 1435-1445, https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.03.02.166
Pinkovetskaia, I., Arbeláez-Campillo, D., Rojas-Bahamón, M., & Veas Iniesta, D. (2020). Motivation of new entrepreneurs in modern economies. Amazonia Investiga, 9(29), 368-373. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2020.29.05.41
Ricard, M. (2016). Altruism: The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself And The World. New York: Back Bay Books.
Vishnever, V.Y., Burganov, R.A., & Nusratullin, I.V. (2019). Institutional transformations in the field of services in digital economy. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (International Scientific Conference Global Challenges and Prospects of the Modern Economic Development (GCPMED 2018), 57, 1759-1768. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.03.178
Published
2022-10-10
How to Cite
Davydov, I., Nikolskaya, A., Podbiralina, G., Mrochkovsky, N., & Chuvilova, O. (2022). Socio-economic inequality and altruism. Amazonia Investiga, 11(55), 306-317. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.55.07.32
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