Economic shocks on subjective well-being: re-assessing the determinants of life-satisfaction after the 2008 financial crisis

Charles, A, Wu, D and Wu, Z ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1707-0238, 2019. Economic shocks on subjective well-being: re-assessing the determinants of life-satisfaction after the 2008 financial crisis. Journal of Happiness Studies, 20 (4), pp. 1041-1055. ISSN 1389-4978

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Abstract

The paper investigates the extent to which life-satisfaction is biased by peer-comparison by looking at the relative value attached to the different domains of life-satisfaction, as suggested by Easterlin (Economics and happiness: framing the analysis, Oxford University Press, New York, 2005), by social group. We postulate that group membership influences the ranking of the satisfaction domains affecting subjective well-being which allows individuals to go back to their individual threshold over time. Using ordered probit models with random effects, the evidence for professional (self-employed vs. employee) and social (male vs. female) groups using the British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society—UK Household Longitudinal Study from 1996 to 2014 shows that the ranking of the satisfaction domains is group-based suggesting a "keeping up with the Joneses" effect linked to the housing bubble.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Journal of Happiness Studies
Creators:	Charles, A., Wu, D. and Wu, Z.
Publisher:	Springer
Date:	15 April 2019
Volume:	20
Number:	4
ISSN:	1389-4978
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1007/s10902-018-9986-y DOI 9986 Publisher Item Identifier 669607 Other
Rights:	© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	14 May 2018 14:34
Last Modified:	09 Dec 2020 16:02
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/33574

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