相对经济地位与生活满意度——来自脱贫攻坚实践的证据  

Relative Economic Status and Life Satisfaction:Evidence from the Targeted Poverty Alleviation Program in China

作　　者：蔡宇涵 黄阳华[1] 郑新业[1] CAI Yuhan;HUANG Yanghua;ZHENG Xinye(School of Applied Economics,Renmin University of China)

机构地区：[1]中国人民大学应用经济学院,100872

出　　处：《经济研究》2024年第4期191-208,共18页Economic Research Journal

基　　金：国家自然科学基金项目(72141308);中国人民大学重大规划项目(22XNLG12)的阶段性成果。

摘　　要：本文借助中国脱贫攻坚政策对农村居民相对收入产生的外生冲击,利用中国贫困人口微观追踪数据库,在一个拓展的个体效用函数框架下探讨社会比较心理对人们生活满意度的影响及其机制。研究发现,在控制平均收入整体增长的情形下,家庭之间收入增速变化带来的相对经济地位变化对生活满意度可产生显著影响,这一影响来自炫耀性消费、公共物品利用和社会资本积累三种机制。进一步实证研究表明,确保机会平等和提升资源可得性不仅能够直接提升生活满意度,而且可以间接缓解社会比较心理对生活满意度的影响。本文为准确认识当代农村居民经济行为提供了新证据,为探索更可行的共同富裕实现路径提供了新思路。"Happiness"has been the common pursuit of all human beings throughout the ages,and people's well-being has been an essential focus of policy-making and scientific research.Since the 1970s,studies have found that people's happiness does not increase along with economic growth in the long term as predicted by economic theories,and there is no significant evidence for differences in happiness between developed and less-developed countries.These facts,summarized as the"Happiness Paradox"or"Easterlin Paradox,"have been inspiring economists to analyze happiness and its driving factors more widely.Due to the lack of exogenous shock,however,most studies can only access observational or survey data,which cannot avoid or effectively solve endogeneity problems such as endogenous selection of reference groups and omitted variables.Therefore,the robustness of the empirical results and the mechanisms need to be further explored.Under the framework of causal identification,this research makes use of the external shock of China's Targeted Poverty Alleviation(TPA)Program on rural residents'relative income to test the impact of relative economic status changes on individuals'life satisfaction,namely,positional effect,and conducts mechanism analysis.Utilizing the Micro Tracking Database of Poor Populations,this research presents the patterns of individuals'life satisfaction in rural China and provides references for comprehensively understanding people's well-being.The research covers the following aspects.To eradicate extreme poverty as quickly and effectively as possible,the Chinese government launched the TPA Program and established a system for monitoring poverty at the end of 2013.With the guidance and assistance of the central government,the cooperation of local governments,and the support of the society,the TPA Program has provided a comprehensive policy package including poverty alleviation strategies at both individual and regional levels.It not only significantly enhances the income levels of rural impoverished population

关 键 词：相对经济地位 生活满意度 位置效应 个人效用 共同富裕 

分 类 号：F323.8[经济管理—产业经济]