Human Well-Being over the Life Cycle: Longitudinal Evidence from a 20-Year Panel

Van Landeghem, Bert

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1360731

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Human Well-Being over the Life Cycle: Longitudinal Evidence from a 20-Year Panel

41 Pages Posted: 17 Mar 2009

See all articles by Bert Van Landeghem

Bert Van Landeghem

KU Leuven - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance (LICOS); University of Sheffield - Department of Economics

Date Written: September 2008

Abstract

This paper uses longitudinal data from the German Socioeconomic Panel (GSOEP) to analyze the course of subjective well-being over the life cycle. The paper ends that the U-shaped pattern of life satisfaction over age is less supported in a longitudinal analysis. Moreover, assets and material well-being seem to play an important role in determining the course of satisfaction over life time. The upsurge of happiness after mid-life seems to be more robust to model specifications, which might imply that the latter is inherent to mankind.

Keywords: subjective well-being, life cycle happiness, ageing, birth cohorts, U-shape, German Socio-Economic Panel

JEL Classification: C23, I31, J10

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Van Landeghem, Bert, Human Well-Being over the Life Cycle: Longitudinal Evidence from a 20-Year Panel (September 2008). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1360731 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1360731