Relative wealth 'makes you happier'

Relative wealth 'makes you happier' - Telegraph

Several studies by sociologists have looked at whether the effect of money on happiness results largely from the things money can buy (the so called absolute income effect) or from comparing one's income to the income of others (relative income effect) and concluded the latter is most important, even though economists usually only focus on the size of salaries...

This has many important implications for economics and social sciences in general. "Our findings are in sharp contrast to the typical assumption in economics according to which people care only about their own achievements and performance levels...

The implications of this work is that we are trapped on a "hedonic treadmill", as one sociologist put it, which means an endless effort to "keep up with the Joneses" to stay happy.