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The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness
Betsey Stevenson University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research) Justin Wolfers University of Pennsylvania - Business & Public Policy Department; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research); Kiel Institute for the World Economy May 2009 NBER Working Paper No. w14969 Abstract: By many objective measures the lives of women in the United States have improved over the past 35 years, yet we show that measures of subjective well-being indicate that women's happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to men. The paradox of women's declining relative well-being is found across various datasets, measures of subjective well-being, and is pervasive across demographic groups and industrialized countries. Relative declines in female happiness have eroded a gender gap in happiness in which women in the 1970s typically reported higher subjective well-being than did men. These declines have continued and a new gender gap is emerging - one with higher subjective well-being for men. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.
JEL Classifications: D6, I32, J1, J7, K1 Working Paper SeriesDate posted: May 19, 2009 ; Last revised: June 08, 2009Suggested CitationContact Information
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