We argue that the relationship between individual satisfaction with life (SWL) and SWL inequality is more complex than described by earlier research. Our measures of SWL inequality include indices designed specifically for ordinal data as well as often used (but inappropriate) measures suited to cardinal data. Using inequality indices derived by Cowell and Flachaire designed for use with ordinal data, our analysis shows that skewness of the SWL distribution, rather than inequality per se, matters for individual SWL outcomes. The empirical analysis is based on repeated cross-section data obtained from the World Values Survey. Our results are consistent with there being negative externalities for an individual’s SWL arising from people who are low in the SWL distribution, with positive externalities arising from people who are high in the SWL distribution.

我们认为，个人对生活的满意度 (SWL) 与 SWL 不平等之间的关系比早期研究所描述的更为复杂。我们对 SWL 不平等的衡量包括专门为序数数据设计的指数，以及适用于基数数据的常用（但不合适）的衡量标准。使用 Cowell 和 Flachaire 得出的用于序数数据的不平等指数，我们的分析表明，SWL 分布的偏度，而不是不平等本身，对个体 SWL 结果很重要。实证分析基于从世界价值观调查中获得的重复横截面数据。我们的结果与来自 SWL 分布低的人的个人 SWL 的负外部性一致，