MARC Record from Library of Congress

LEADER: 02888cam a22003377a 4500
001 2007615270
003 DLC
005 20070914083638.0
007 cr |||||||||||
008 070913s2007 cau sb f000 0 eng
010 $a 2007615270
040 $aDLC$cDLC
050 00 $aHB1
100 1 $aDaly, Mary C.
245 10 $aRelative status and well-being$h[electronic resource] :$bevidence from U.S. suicide deaths /$cMary C. Daly, Daniel J. Wilson, Norman J. Johnson.
260 $a[San Francisco] :$bFederal Reserve Bank of San Francisco,$c[2007]
490 1 $aFRBSF working paper ;$v2007-12
538 $aSystem requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.
538 $aMode of access: World Wide Web.
500 $aTitle from PDF file (viewed on Sept. 13, 2007).
500 $a"April 2007."
520 3 $aThis paper empirically assesses the theory of interpersonal income comparison using individual level data on suicide deaths in the United States. We model suicide as a choice variable, conditional on exogenous risk factors, reflecting an individual's assessment of current and expected future utility. Our empirical analysis considers whether suicide risk is systematically related to the income of others, holding own income and other individual factors fixed. We estimate proportional hazards and probit models of the suicide hazard using two separate and independent data sets: (1) the National ongitudinal Mortality Study and (2) the Detailed Mortality Files combined with the 5 percent Public Use Micro Sample of the 1990 decennial census. Results from both data sources show that, controlling for own income and individual characteristics, individual suicide risk rises with reference group income. This result holds for reference groups defined broadly, such as by county, and more narrowly by county and one demographic marker (e.g., age, sex, race). These findings are robust to alternative specifications and cannot be explained by geographic variation in cost of living, access to emergency medical care, mismeasurement of deaths by suicide, or by bias due to endogeneity of own income. Our results confirm findings using self-reported happiness data and are consistent with models of utility featuring "external habit" or "Keeping Up with the Joneses" preferences.
530 $aAlso available in print.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references.
653 $aRelative income;$ainterpersonal comparisons;$ainterdependent preferences$asuicide;$ahappiness;$aKeeping Up with the Joneses.
700 1 $aWilson, Daniel J.
700 1 $aJohnson, Norman J.
710 2 $aFederal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
830 0 $aFRBSF working paper (Online) ;$v#2007-12.
856 40 $uhttp://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/papers/2007/wp07-12bk.pdf
856 42 $3Working paper series by year$uhttp://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/papers/index.php