Read Justin Wolfers first in a trilogy of posts on U.S. happiness inequality at Freakonomics.
Also check out Eduardo Porter’s account of Stevenson and Wolfer’s paper:
It seems odd that happiness would become more egalitarian over a period in which the share of the nation’s income sucked in by the richest 1 percent of Americans rose from 7 percent to 17 percent. In fact, the report does find a growing happiness gap between Americans with higher levels of education and those with less, which is roughly in line with the widening pay gap between the skilled and unskilled.
Will Wilkinson 