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Contribution Details

Type Working Paper
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Heterogeneity in the relationship between happiness and age: evidence from the German socio-economic panel
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Gregori Baetschmann
Language
  • English
Institution University of Zurich
Series Name Working paper series / Department of Economics
Number No. 47
ISSN 1664-7041
Number of Pages 32
Date 2011
Abstract Text This paper studies the evolution of life satisfaction over the life course in Germany. It clarifies the causal interpretation of the econometric model by discussing the choice of control variables and the underidentification between age, cohort and time effects. The empirical part analyzes the distribution of life satisfaction over the life course at the aggregated, subgroup and individual level. To the findings: On average, life satisfaction is mildly decreasing up to age fifty-five followed by a hump shape with a maximum at seventy. The analysis at the lower levels suggests that people differ in their life satisfaction trends, whereas the hump shape after age fifty-five is robust. No important differences between men and women are found. In contrast, education groups differ in their trends: highly educated people become happier over the life cycle, where life satisfaction decreases for less educated people.
Official URL http://www.econ.uzh.ch/static/wp/econwp047.pdf
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Keywords Aging, life satisfaction, well-being, happiness methodology, Zufriedenheit, Altern, Bildung