Sydney - As study after study has shown, more money, either for countries or for individuals, doesn't make for more happiness. 

What does affect our sense of wellbeing, according to researchers in Australia, is disparity in income. 

"Income doesn't seem to be affecting people's happiness, but comparative income does," said Satya Paul, an economist at the University of Western Sydney. "We compare ourselves to our peer group - sex, education, age - and if someone does better then our happiness declines." 

Professor Paul tracked the income of over 8,500 Australians in the four years to 2005 and found no correlation between the rise in incomes and a rise in happiness. 

He did find that low-income earners and high-income earners had a higher average happiness quotient in common. The variability was in the middle-income group, where comparative income was most clearly shown to be a determinant of happiness, which for the purposes of the study was defined as "self-reported satisfaction." 

Envy, he found, caused dissatisfaction and undermined happiness. 

Paul said that his findings were in accordance with similar studies of the "income paradox" in Britain, France, Germany and the United States that found no correlation between wealth and happiness. 

He stressed that more important than income in determining happiness were non-monetary factors like good health, being married and being in employment. 

His study was published in the same week that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) issued its findings on the gap between the rich and the poor in 30 nations. 

It found inequality in Australia had fallen "quite sharply" since 2000 even though the incidence of poverty had increased. 

As Paul points out, what matters in happiness is not the gap across the community but the disparity within groups. 

What irks us, what can even cause grievous harm to our wellbeing, is the person at the next desk getting a pay rise. If the salary of the boss doubles, we are unperturbed because that person belongs to another group. (dpa)