%0 Report
        %A Decancq, Koen
%A Neumann, Dirk
        %T Does the Choice of Well-Being Measure Matter Empirically? An Illustration with German Data
        %D 2014
        %8 2014 Oct
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 8589
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp8589
        %X We discuss and compare five measures of individual well-being, namely income, an objective composite well-being index, a measure of subjective well-being, equivalent income, and a well-being measure based on the von Neumann-Morgenstern utilities of the individuals. After examining the information requirements of these measures, we illustrate their implementation using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) for 2010. We find sizeable differences in the characteristics of the individuals identified as worst off according to the different well-being measures. Less than 1% of the individuals belong to the bottom decile according to all five measures. Moreover, the measures lead to considerably different well-being rankings of the individuals. These findings highlight the importance of the choice of well-being measure for policy making.
        %K von Neumann-Morgenstern utility function
%K equivalent income
%K life satisfaction
%K composite well-being index
%K income
%K worst off
%K Germany