4.2. Conclusion and future directions
This study is the first to monitor shifts in SWB during a rare period of decline in income inequality. Unfortunately, the current rise of global wealth inequalities gives few opportunities to study the inverse implication of IIH. The fact that the happiness gap between our groups is diminishing over time is worthy of discussion and further investigation, especially now that income inequality is again on the rise (e.g. OECD, 2016) and explanations for the persistence of well-being disparities in Nordic welfare societies remain elusive (Huijts & Eikemo, 2009; Mackenbach, 2012).
Our findings have implications both for policy and for research. Nations have different traditions or set-points of wealth distribution and class-division to which they are accustomed and disruptions of that status quo can be more telling of how income inequality relates to health and well-being, than a comparison between nations with not only different Gini’s but also a number of other different characteristics (Chen & Gotway Crawford, 2012). Therefore, more longitudinal studies on how changes in income inequality are linked with changes in wellbeing over time, within a country, are needed. Within country studies avoid empirical problems arising in cross-country analysis when using incomparable country-specific data (Deaton, 2003), and may thus better suited to partition psychological process from structural confounders, thus identifying how changes in inequality are related to changes in well-being disparities between people of differing socioeconomic status.
Future research on the association of inequality and well-being must take into account the values and ideals of consumer cultures in order to fully understand how status differences affect well-being of different socio-economic groups. If our speculations turn out to be supported by future research, growing levels of materialism along with growing income inequality might have worrying consequences for well-being.
