Money doesn't buy happiness... or does it?
Subtitle: a reconsideration based on the combined effects of wealth, income and consumption
By: by Bruce Headey, Ruud Muffels, Mark Wooden.
Contributors: Muffels, R. J. A.; Wooden, Mark.
Series: Discussion paper ;; no. 1218; Discussion paper (Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit : Online) ;; no. 1218
Publisher: IZA
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Bonn, Germany
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Wealth.; Satisfaction.
Description: "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"--Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit web site.
Notes: Also available in print.
Includes bibliographical references.
Title from PDF file as viewed on 5/6/2005.
System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.