Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The middle class is often discussed as an aspirational goal for Americans. The well-being of this group is used as proxy for a prosperous U.S. economy and society, making them an obvious population of focus for policy debates. A growing body of literature finds that individuals with higher levels of well-being are more likely to believe in – and therefore invest in – their futures, and, on average, have better outcomes in the health, income, and social arenas. In contrast, individuals with low well-being are often unable to plan their futures, much less to believe in or invest in them.

However, the academic literature – much less policy dialogues – have yet to examine how well-being is generated within social hierarchies (e.g. class) along the lines of race-gender versus between them. This causes us to miss the nuances that “race-gender” (e.g. Black women, Latino men, etc.) may provide to the real and perceived state of the American middle class, a concept that is well-aligned with intersectionality theory. Ultimately, the goal of policy – and thus policy scholars – is to improve the overall quality of life of constituents, something which can be robustly assessed by the new science of well-being measurement. If we endeavor to promote high subjective well-being of the American middle class, it is important to critically assess who is represented within the group.

Is it accurate to talk about the middle class experience as if it is monolithic, as many politicians and policy scholars do? The demographic variation of the group alone is evidence that the American middle class is not a cohesive group with consistent values, policy preferences, or solutions. Despite objectively worse outcomes (e.g. health, education, work) Blacks, Latinos, and White women of the same income report significantly higher levels of well-being than their White male counterparts. This finding is counterintuitive because (1) experiencing discrimination is associated with stress and lower levels of life satisfaction (or evaluative well-being), and (2) discrimination raises the “transaction costs” of life. Thus, a sub-goal of policy scholars should be to better understand how subjective well-being is assessed by race-gender cohort when we control for income.

In this econometric analysis, I use the Gallup Daily dataset to explore the implications of intersectionality theory when applied to middle class well-being. Does race, gender, or race-gender interaction moderate the relationship between determinants of well-being and subjective (hedonic and evaluative) well-being for the American middle class? This research provides guidance to policymakers and scholars invested in the quality of life and policy solutions to support this broad social group.