How Do the Middle Class and the Poor Grow Apart? An Empirical Test of the Psychological Well-Being Pathway in Middle-Income Countries

How to define who exactly qualifies as middle class is a long-standing discussion, but has been given new impetus by recent contributions in behavioural economics and social psychology. This study investigates the plausibility of the claim that the middle class can be meaningfully defined as those with higher levels of mental well-being. To this purpose we explore the pathway from occupational class to locus of control, and further link this pathway to behaviour that is often associated with middle-class status. The article tests for interdependencies between these variables with data from 23 middle-income countries using the 2005 World Value Survey. We show by structural equation modelling that the data are at least consistent with a psychological well-being pathway. The analysis thus supports the idea that middle classes not only fare better because they have more stable financial means, but also because these socioeconomic circumstances allow them more mental resources.