Do Danes and Italians Rate Life Satisfaction in the Same Way?: Using Vignettes to Correct for Individual-Specific Scale Biases

• Autores: Viola Angelini, Danilo Cavapozzi, Luca Corazzini, Omar Paccagnella
• Localización: Oxford bulletin of economics and statistics, ISSN 0305-9049, Vol. 76, Nº. 5, 2014, págs. 643-666
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Self-reported life satisfaction is highly heterogeneous across similar countries, a phenomenon that may be explained by the different scales and benchmarks that people use to evaluate themselves. This study uses cross-sectional data gathered from older populations in ten European countries to compare estimates from a model that assumes reporting styles are constant across respondents against estimates from a model in which anchoring vignettes help correct for individual-specific scale biases. Variations in response scales explain much of the difference in the raw data. Moreover, the cross-country ranking in life satisfaction depends significantly on scale biases.