Does happiness pay? An exploration based on panel data from Russia

Well-being research has supported the common sense view that income, health, and other factors affect happiness. We use panel data from Russia to assess the reverse causation - that happiness itself affects income, health, and other factors. We find that people who had higher "residual happiness" in 1995 - people who were happier after correcting for the usual determinants of well-being - made more money and were in better health in a survey 5 years later. Psychologists attribute a large part of well-being to factors Such as self-esteem and optimism. The same factors appear to influence individuals' wealth and health. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.