Reversing the Question: Does Happiness Affect Consumption and Savings Behavior?

Cahit Guven ()

No 219, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: I examine the impact of happiness on consumption and savings behavior using data from the DNB Household Survey from the Netherlands and the German Socio-Economic Panel. Instrumenting individual happiness with regional sunshine, the results suggest that happier people save more, spend less, and have a lower marginal propensity to consume. Happier people take more time for making decisions and have more control over expenditures; they expect a longer life and (accordingly) seem more concerned about the future than the present; they also expect less inflation in the future.

Keywords: happiness; savings; consumption; weather (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 D3 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 52 p.
Date: 2009
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.338514.de/diw_sp0219.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Reversing the question: Does happiness affect consumption and savings behavior? (2012)
Working Paper: Reversing the question. Does happiness affect consumption and savings behavior? (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp219

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