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Socio-demographic factors of happiness

Studies undertaken with data for many different countries and periods of time have identified the following main general results:

• Age affects happiness in a U-shaped manner. Young and old people report being happier than middle-aged people. The least happy people are aged between 30 and 35.

• Women report being slightly happier than men.

• Couples with and without children are happier than singles, single parents and people living in collective households.

• Foreigners report being significantly less happy than nationals.

• People with higher education indicate significantly higher well-being.

• Bad health significantly lowers self-reported happiness.

While these results have been found in a large number of different studies, they should nevertheless be interpreted carefully. Thus, for example, with respect to the influence of age on happiness, it should be taken into account that many old people have health problems which negatively affect their well-being. Moreover, there is the question of causality. For example, does marriage cause happiness or does happiness promote marriage? A selection effect cannot be ruled out. It seems reasonable to assume that dissatisfied and introverted people find it more difficult to find a partner. It is more fun to be with extraverted, trusting and compassionate people. Careful research has led to the conclusion that this selection effect is not strong and that the positive association of marriage and happiness is mainly due to the beneficial effects of marriage.

Economic factors of happiness

Three major influences on happiness have been identified: unemployment, income and inflation.

The effects of unemployment on happiness

Two aspects are worth distinguishing: What is the happiness level of an unemployed person? How does general unemployment in an economy affect happiness?

Personal unemployment

Studies have clearly established that, for many different countries and time periods, personally experiencing unemployment makes people very unhappy. Joblessness reduces well-being more than any other single factor, including important negative ones such as divorce and separation (Clark and Oswald, 1994, p. 655). These results refer to the ‘pure’ effect of being unemployed. The income loss, as well as other indirect effects which often go with personally being unemployed, are kept constant.

It could be argued that what has been found could be interpreted quite differently. While the negative correlation between unemployment and is well established, it may well be that the causation runs in the opposite direction implied so far: unhappy people do not perform well, and therefore are laid off. Happy people are fitter for working life, which makes it less likely for them to lose their job. The question of reverse causation due to a selection bias has been addressed in many studies with longitudinal data, before and after particular workers lose their job, for example due to a plant closure. There is evidence that unhappy people are indeed not performing well in the labour market, but the main causation seems clearly to run from unemployment to unhappiness.

 

 


Date: 2014-12-21; view: 803


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