The Age U-shape in Europe: The Protective Role of Partnership

Andrew Clark, Hippolyte d'Albis and Angela Greulich ()
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Angela Greulich: Sciences Po - Sciences Po

PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) from HAL

Abstract: In this study, we ask whether the U-shaped relationship between life satisfactionand age is flatter for individuals who are partnered. An analysis of cross-sectionalEU-SILC data indicates that the decline in life satisfaction from the teens to thefifties is almost four times larger for non-partnered than for partnered individuals,whose life satisfaction essentially follows a slight downward trajectory with age.However, the same analysis applied to three panel datasets (BHPS, SOEP andHILDA) reveals a U-shape for both groups, albeit somewhat flatter for the partneredthan for the non-partnered individuals. We suggest that the difference between thecross-sectional and the panel results reflects compositional effects: i.e., there isa significant shift of the relatively dissatisfied out of marriage in mid-life. Thesecompositional effects tend to flatten the U-shape in age for the partnered individualsin the cross-sectional data.

Keywords: Life satisfaction; Life cycle; Partnership; Marriage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-ltv
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03467204v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, 2021, 19, pp.293-318. ⟨10.1553/populationyearbook2021.res3.1⟩

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Related works:
Journal Article: The age U-shape in Europe: the protective role of partnership (2021)
Working Paper: The Age U-shape in Europe: The Protective Role of Partnership (2021)
Working Paper: The Age U-shape in Europe: The Protective Role of Partnership (2021)
Working Paper: The Age U-shape in Europe: The Protective Role of Partnership (2020)
Working Paper: The Age U-shape in Europe: The Protective Role of Partnership (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:pseptp:halshs-03467204

DOI: 10.1553/populationyearbook2021.res3.1

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