Well-being over time in Britain and the USA

被引:1384
作者
Blanchflower, DG
Oswald, AJ
机构
[1] Dartmouth Coll, Dept Econ, Hanover, NH 03755 USA
[2] NBER, Hanover, NH 03755 USA
[3] Univ Warwick, Dept Econ, Warwick, England
关键词
well-being; happiness; Britain; USA;
D O I
10.1016/S0047-2727(02)00168-8
中图分类号
F [经济];
学科分类号
02 ;
摘要
This paper studies happiness in the United States and Great Britain. Reported levels of wellbeing have declined over the last quarter of a century in the US; life satisfaction has run approximately flat through time in Britain. These findings are consistent with the Easterlin hypothesis [Nations and Households in Economic Growth: Essays in Honour of Moses Abramowitz (1974) Academic Press; J. Econ. Behav. Org., 27 (1995) 35]. The happiness of American blacks, however, has risen. White women in the US have been the biggest losers since the 1970s. Well-being equations have a stable structure. Money buys happiness. People care also about relative income. Well-being is U-shaped in age. The paper estimates the dollar values of events like unemployment and divorce. They are large. A lasting marriage (compared to widowhood as a 'natural' experiment), for example, is estimated to be worth $100,000 a year. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier B.V.
引用
收藏
页码:1359 / 1386
页数:28
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