Publication type
Journal Article
Authors
Publication date
June 1, 2008
Abstract:
The accepted view among psychologists and economists alike is that economic well-being has a statistically significant but only weak effect on happiness/subjective well-being (SWB). This view is based almost entirely on weak relationships with household income. The paper uses household economic panel data from five countries - Australia, Britain, Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands - to provide a reconsideration of the impact of economic wellbeing on happiness. The main conclusion is that happiness is considerably more affected by economic circumstances than previously believed. In all five countries wealth affects life satisfaction more than income. In the countries for which consumption data are available (Britain and Hungary), non-durable consumption expenditures also prove at least as important to happiness as income. Further, results from panel regression fixed effects models indicate that changes in wealth, income and consumption all produce significant, though not large, changes in satisfaction levels. [from w.p.]
Published in
Social Indicators Research
Volume
Volume: 87 (1):65-82
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-007-9146-y
Subjects
Notes
Springer search
Originally 'Online First' Jul .2007
not held in Res Lib - bibliographic reference only
#509820