Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/69363 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7187
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Long term trends in happiness and income are not related; short term fluctuations in happiness and income are positively associated. Evidence for this is found in time series data for developed countries, transition countries, and less developed countries, whether analyzed separately or pooled. Skeptics, who claim that the long term time series trend relationship is positive, are mistaking the short term association for the long term one, or are misguided by a statistical artifact. Some analysts assert that in less developed countries happiness and economic growth are positively related up to some point, beyond which the association tends to become nil, but time series data do not support this view. The most striking contradiction is China where, despite a fourfold multiplication in two decades in real GDP per capita from a low initial level, life satisfaction has not improved.
Subjects: 
happiness
life satisfaction
subjective well-being
income
long term
short term
Easterlin paradox
developed countries
transition countries
less developed countries
China
JEL: 
I31
D60
O10
O5
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.