Lags and Leads in Life Satisfaction: A Test of the Baseline Hypothesis

Andrew Clark (), Ed Diener, Yannis Georgellis () and Richard E. Lucas

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: We look for evidence of habituation in twenty waves of German panel data: do individuals, after lifeand labour market events, tend to return to some baseline level of well-being? Although the strongestlife satisfaction effect is often at the time of the event, we find significant lag and lead effects. Wecannot reject the hypothesis of complete adaptation to marriage, divorce, widowhood, birth of child,and layoff. However, there is little evidence of adaptation to unemployment. Men are somewhat moreaffected by labour market events (unemployment and layoffs) than are women, but in general thepatterns of anticipation and adaptation are remarkably similar by sex.

Keywords: life satisfaction; anticipation; adaptation; baseline satisfaction; labour market and lifeevents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 J12 J13 J63 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap, nep-lab and nep-ltv
Date: 2007-11
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Related works:
Working Paper: Lags and Leads in Life Satisfaction: A Test of the Baseline Hypothesis (2003)
Working Paper: Lags and Leads in Life Satisfaction: A Test of the Baseline Hypothesis (2008)
Working Paper: Lags and Leads in Life Satisfaction: A Test of the Baseline Hypothesis (2003)
Working Paper: Lags and Leads in Life Satisfaction: A Test of the Baseline Hypothesis (2006)
Journal Article: Lags And Leads in Life Satisfaction: a Test of the Baseline Hypothesis (2008)
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