Subjective well-being (SWB) can be investigated from psychological, sociological and economic views. Economists tend to see happiness, life satisfaction and SWB synonymously, they sometimes use it as an approximation for the concept of utility. Clearly, SWB relations with income, relative income and material situation are in central points of interests for economists. Generally, there is an agreement that income is positively associated with SWB, but the effect weakens with the overall wealth. It’s in accordance with economic law of declining marginal utility.

The objective of this PhD. research is to investigate how material conditions may be associated with SWB. Material conditions include individual income, income relative to other people as well as to own past and several factors intermediating income and SWB. Special case to be investigated is SWB in the situation of economic strain (material deprivation). The research is based on secondary empirical data from 3 rd wave of European Quality-of- life Survey (EQLS). Association between variables are analyzed using ordinary statistical methods and Bayesian network tool.