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

Bert Van Landeghem

LICOS Discussion Papers from LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven

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 long time dimension offers an opportunity to disentangle ageing effects from fixed birth co- hort effects. The paper _finds that the U-shaped pattern of life satisfaction over age is less supported in a longitudinal analysis, and that the observed trajectory can vary across model specifications. 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 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 I31 J10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-hap and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lic:licosd:21308

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