WHATS MONEY WORTH - DETERMINANTS OF THE SUBJECTIVE VALUE OF MONEY

This study with 181 subjects, 79 women and 102 men, randomly chosen fr om the local area of Upper Austria, is aimed at two major questions, ( a) whether or not the validity of Stevens' power function can be repli cated (Galanter, 1990) for money utility scaling, and (b) which of thr ee possible determinants (monthly net income, attitudes towards money and money handling, and personality traits, i.e.: the combination of e xtroversion x emotional stability) influence the subjective value of m oney. To answer the first question we employed magnitude production me thods, and for the second question we made use of LISREL analyses. The results of magnitude production do not support the validity of Steven s' power function for money utility scaling. The LISREL model reveals that the subjective value of money is dependent on monthly net income and on attitudes towards money, but not on the personality pattern of emotional stability and extroversion.