Do Danes and Italians rate life satisfaction in the same way? Using vignettes to correct for individual-specific scale biases.

Self-reported life satisfaction is highly heterogeneous across similar countries. This phenomenon can be largely explained by the different scales and benchmarks adopted by individuals when evaluating themselves. We use cross-sectional data on the population aged 50 and over in ten European countries to compare estimates from a model in which reporting styles are assumed to be constant across respondents with those from a model in which anchoring vignettes are used to correct for individual-specific scale biases. We find that variations in response scales explain a large part of the differences found in raw data. Moreover, the cross-country ranking in life satisfaction significantly depends on scale biases.