Journal Article

Car ownership and hedonic adaptation

Authors

Publication date

Aug 2017

Summary

Using panel data from the UK, we study the long-term effect of purchase decisions of automobiles on individuals’ happiness. We find a significant and sizable decrease in individual happiness in the years after a car purchase. We develop a model of hedonic adaptation that can explain these results. Applying the model to the data indicates a strong degree of habit persistence of around 80%, and that within five years after a purchase, around one third of the happiness increase is dissipated due to hedonic adaptation.

Published in

Journal of Economic Psychology

Volume and page numbers

61 , 29 -38

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2017.02.014

ISSN

16

Subjects

Psychology, Economics, and Well Being

Links

University of Essex, Albert Sloman Library Periodicals *restricted to University of Essex registered users* - http://serlib0.essex.ac.uk/record=b1646364~S5

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