The "improvement paradox". Towards a better understanding of the mismatch between objective quality of life indicators and subjective quality of life evaluations

The project addresses the (supposed) paradox - sometimes referred to as the Toqueville Paradox - that as people's living conditions improve, their sensitivity to even minor remaining problems and inequalities increases. Topics range from gender to sustainability to economic inequality. Mismatches between objective and subjective QoL is investigated cross-sectionally (individual and country-level) as well as longitudinally (on country level) using a variety of survey data (e.g., WVS/EVS, ISSP, ESS, EQLS) as well as official statistics (e.g., Eurostat, OECD, World Bank).