Does upward mobility result in greater well-being? Evidence from a pre-registered study on a large population-based survey

Resumen

Income inequality gained increasing attention in public discourse. Promoting upward mobility is a potential solution to income inequality. The current study tested whether upward mobility predicts greater well-being, whether upward mobility attenuates the negative effects of income inequality, and whether gender differences in upward mobility differentially predict well-being for men and women. Upward mobility was operationalized as changes in income rank across generations for families in the lowest income quartile. In a pre-registered study on 917,331 US workers, results supported neither the main effect of upward mobility nor the moderating role of upward mobility on the association between income inequality and life satisfaction. Gender differences in upward mobility did not consistently predict well-being of men or women. The null results were robust across measures of well-being, measures of upward mobility, and different analytical strategies. The results consistently indicated that regional upward mobility may have little to no association with well-being.

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Cómo citar (APA 7)

Cheung, F., Hill, P., & Jackson, J. J. (2017). Does upward mobility result in greater well-being? Evidence from a pre-registered study on a large population-based survey. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/zq49m