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https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36715
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DC Field | Value | Language |
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dc.contributor.author | Headey, Bruce | en |
dc.contributor.author | Muffels, Ruud | en |
dc.contributor.author | Wagner, Gert G. | en |
dc.date.accessioned | 2010-06-08 | - |
dc.date.accessioned | 2010-07-22T09:28:39Z | - |
dc.date.available | 2010-07-22T09:28:39Z | - |
dc.date.issued | 2010 | - |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10419/36715 | - |
dc.description.abstract | Using data from the long-running German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) 1984-2008, this paper analyses the effects of individual preferences and choices on subjective well-being (SWB). It is shown that preferences and choices relating to life goals/values, partner's personality, hours of work, social participation and healthy lifestyle all have substantial effects on life satisfaction. The results have negative implications for the still dominant theory of SWB, set-point theory. This theory holds that adult SWB does not change in the medium or long term, although temporary fluctuations occur due to specific life events. Set-point theory has come under increasing criticism in recent years, primarily due to unmistakable evidence in SOEP that, during the last 25 years, up to a third of the population has recorded substantial and apparently permanent changes in life satisfaction. It is becoming clear that the main challenge now for SWB researchers is to develop a new theory which can account for medium and long term change, and not merely stability in SWB. Set-point theory is limited precisely because it is purely a theory of stability. The paper is based on a specially constructed SOEP file in which data are divided into five 5-year periods in order to facilitate analysis of medium term change. | en |
dc.language.iso | eng | en |
dc.publisher | |aDeutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW) |cBerlin | en |
dc.relation.ispartofseries | |aDIW Discussion Papers |x1010 | en |
dc.subject.jel | I31 | en |
dc.subject.jel | J1 | en |
dc.subject.jel | Z13 | en |
dc.subject.ddc | 330 | en |
dc.subject.keyword | SWB | en |
dc.subject.keyword | set-point theory | en |
dc.subject.keyword | life goals | en |
dc.subject.keyword | individual choice | en |
dc.subject.keyword | panel regression analysis | en |
dc.subject.keyword | SOEP | en |
dc.subject.stw | Lebenszufriedenheit | en |
dc.subject.stw | Lebensqualität | en |
dc.subject.stw | Entscheidung | en |
dc.subject.stw | Präferenztheorie | en |
dc.subject.stw | Theorie | en |
dc.subject.stw | Deutschland | en |
dc.title | Choices which change life satisfaction: Revising SWB theory to account for change | - |
dc.type | |aWorking Paper | en |
dc.identifier.ppn | 627496865 | en |
dc.rights | http://www.econstor.eu/dspace/Nutzungsbedingungen | en |
dc.identifier.repec | RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1010 | en |
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