The U-shaped relationship between happiness and age: evidence using world values survey data

Edsel L. Beja ()
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Edsel L. Beja: Ateneo de Manila University

Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, 2018, vol. 52, issue 4, No 19, 1817-1829

Abstract: Abstract The paper retests the U-shaped relationship between happiness and age using the cross-classified multilevel regression procedure and the World Values Survey data. The analysis accounts for period and cohort effects. The results reconfirm the pattern that happiness is U-shaped in the life course. That is, happiness decreases from a high-point in young adulthood, reaches a low-point in midlife, and thereafter increases to arrive at another high-point in old age. The results show that the high-point of happiness in old age is lower than the high-point of happiness in young adulthood. That happiness does not return to its initial high-point after it drops to a low-point in midlife is perhaps another stylized fact in the relationship between happiness and age.

Keywords: Happiness; Age; U-shaped relationship; Multilevel regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 J10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11135-017-0570-z

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