Understanding Income Misperception Among Older Adults

Evidence from Belgium, Italy, and Spain

Bibliographic Data

ID11716691
AuthorsElisa Castagno (corresponding author), Francesco Figari (0000-0003-0735-1076, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro”), M Rossi (0000-0002-4116-922X, Collegio Carlo Alberto)
Year2026
Volume181
Issue2
Publication date2026-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Indicators Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0303-8300 • E-ISSN: 1573-0921
PublisherSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s11205-025-03756-x
OpenAlexW7125419491
LanguageEN
References cited24

Despite the relevance of individual perceptions about their position in the income distribution in economic and political science models, there still is little evidence about how such perceptions are formed and how accurate they are. In this paper, we investigate what shapes subjective income perception at individual level and, in turn, determines misperception as measured by the gap between subjective and objective position in the income ladder. To do so we rely on data drawn from an ad hoc module included in the eighth wave of the SHARE dataset for three countries: Belgium, Italy and Spain. We find evidence of a systematic misperception: people in the lower income decile groups tend to overestimate their positioning in the income ladder while people in the higher income decile groups exhibit the opposite behavior. We explain these differences relying on a rich set of socio-demographic and economic characteristics as well as personality traits

Decile · Distribution (mathematics · Human geography · Perception · Personality · Position (finance · Relevance (law · Set (abstract data type · Financial Literacy, Pension, Retirement Analysis · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies

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