Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/185432 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 7234
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
In most research on Life Satisfaction (LS), it is assumed that the covariates of high and low LS are the same for everyone, or at least everyone in the West. In this paper, analysing data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, with a limited replication based on Australian panel data, we estimate models of alternative ‘recipes’ for LS. There appear to be at least four distinct ‘recipes’, which are primarily based on the values of different population sub-sets. These values are: altruistic values, family values, materialistic values and religious values. By a ‘recipe’ for LS we mean a linked set of values, behavioural choices and domain satisfactions, which appear to be held together by a person’s values, and which prove to have substantial effects on LS. Our German and Australian evidence indicates that individuals who follow recipes based on altruistic, family or religious values record above average long term LS, whereas the materialistic values ‘recipe’ is associated with below average LS.
Subjects: 
life satisfaction
alternative recipes
values/life priorities
behavioural choices
domain satisfactions
panel data
SOEP
JEL: 
C54
I30
Z13
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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