Happiness and Financial Satisfaction in Israel: Effects of Religiosity, Ethnicity, and War

32 Pages Posted: 13 Sep 2010

See all articles by B.M.S. van Praag

B.M.S. van Praag

University of Amsterdam - Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB); IZA Institute of Labor Economics; Tinbergen Institute in Amsterdam; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Dmitri Romanov

Government of the State of Israel - Israel Central Bureau of Statistics

Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell

Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (IAE-CSIC), Barcelona

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Abstract

We analyze individual satisfaction with life as a whole and satisfaction with the personal financial situation for Israeli citizens of Jewish and Arab descent. Our data set is the Israeli Social Survey (2006). We are especially interested in the impact of the religions Judaism, Islam and Christianity, where we are able to differentiate between individuals who vary in religiosity between secular and ultra-orthodox. We find a significant effect of religiosity on happiness. With respect to Jewish families it is most striking that the impact of family size on both life and financial satisfaction seems to vary with religiosity. This might be a reason for differentiation in family equivalence scales. For Arab families we did not find this effect. First-generation immigrants are less happy than second-generation immigrants, while there is no significant difference between second-generation families and native families. The effect of the Lebanon War is much less than expected.

Keywords: happiness, subjective well-being, financial satisfaction, Israel, religion, immigration, terrorism

JEL Classification: H56, I31, N35, N45, R23, Z12

Suggested Citation

van Praag, Bernard and Romanov, Dmitri and Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada, Happiness and Financial Satisfaction in Israel: Effects of Religiosity, Ethnicity, and War. IZA Discussion Paper No. 5184, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1675695 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1675695

Bernard Van Praag (Contact Author)

University of Amsterdam - Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) ( email )

Roetersstraat 11
Amsterdam, 1018 WB
Netherlands
31 20 5256018 (Phone)
31 20 5256013 (Fax)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Tinbergen Institute in Amsterdam

Gustav Mahlerplein 117
Amsterdam, 1082 MS
Netherlands

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

Dmitri Romanov

Government of the State of Israel - Israel Central Bureau of Statistics ( email )

Israel

Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell

Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (IAE-CSIC), Barcelona ( email )

Barcelona, Bellaterra 08193
Spain

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