Pathways to happiness: From personality to social networks and perceived support

The present study attempts to incorporate individual personality into a social network account of subjective wellbeing (SWB) by proposing and testing a path model in which social relationships (egocentric social networks and perceived social support, PSS) mediate the relationship between personality and SWB. We found that network characteristics (including network size, emotional closeness, and proportion of new contacts) are related to SWB largely via the mediation of PSS. Additionally, network size and proportion of new contacts function as important mediating mechanisms linking extraversion, agreeableness and openness to PSS and SWB.     

Income Affluence in Poland

This paper examines the evolution of income affluence (richness) in Poland during 1998–2007. Using household survey data, the paper estimates several statistical indices of income affluence including income share of the top percentiles, population share of individuals receiving incomes higher than the richness line, and measures that take into account both the extent and the intensity of affluence. Results show that over the period under study there was a statistically significant and socio-economically sizable rise in income affluence by between 9 and 50%, depending on the index used. The overall income distribution in the period has shifted in favour of the rich as relative poverty and relative size and income share of the middle class have declined.