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http://hdl.handle.net/10419/20027
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| Title: | | The Value of Reunification in Germany: An Analysis of Changes in Life Satisfaction  |
| Authors: | | Frijters, Paul Haisken-DeNew, John P. Shields, Michael A. |
| Issue Date: | | 2002 |
| Series/Report no.: | | IZA Discussion paper series 419 |
| Abstract: | | We quantify the value of changes in life circumstances in Germany following reunification. To this end, we develop and implement a fixed-effect estimator for ordinal life satisfaction in the German Socio-Economic Panel. We find strong negative effects on life satisfaction from being recently fired, losing a spouse through either death or separation and time spent in hospital, whilst we find strong positive effects from income and marriage. Using a new causal decomposition technique, we find that East Germans experienced a continued improvement in life satisfaction after 1990 to which increased household incomes contributed around 12%. Most of the increase is explained by improved average circumstances, such as public services. For West Germans, we find virtually no change in satisfaction between 1991 and 1999. |
| Subjects: | | Life satisfaction German reunification random and fixed-effects panel models causal decomposition |
| JEL: | | C23 Z1 I31 C25 |
| Document Type: | | Working Paper |
| Appears in Collections: | | Publikationen von Forscherinnen und Forschern des DIW IZA Discussion Papers, Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit (IZA)
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