Children, Unhappiness and Family Finances: Evidence from One Million Europeans

David Blanchflower and Andrew Clark

No 25597, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The common finding of a zero or negative correlation between the presence of children and parental well-being continues to generate research interest. We here consider over one million observations on Europeans from ten years of Eurobarometer surveys, and in the first instance replicate this negative finding, both in the overall data and then for most different marital statuses. Children are expensive, and controlling for financial difficulties turns almost all of our estimated child coefficients positive. We argue that financial difficulties explain the pattern of existing results by parental education and income, and country income and social support. Marital status matters. Kids do not raise happiness for singles, the divorced, separated or widowed. Last, we underline that all children are not the same, with step-children commonly having a more negative correlation than children from the current relationship.

JEL-codes: D14 I31 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hap and nep-ltv
Note: CH LS
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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