Order Out of Chaos: A Specification Curve Analysis of Age and Wellbeing

Kausik Chaudhuri and Alan Piper

No 1235, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: The empirical literature on the relationship between age and well-being is characterised by an unusually persistent series of disagreements over data, method, and interpretation. Previous attempts to advance the discussion have involved different scholars’ specific prescriptions, which were often in near total contradiction to other scholars’ attempts to do the same. Instead, we use specification curve analysis to provide a structured and transparent resolution to these disputes. This also helps to illuminate the sensitivity of findings to key analytical decisions. With twenty-five years of panel data from the UK and Germany, we show that most of the specifications are consistent with a turning point for wellbeing in midlife, with a decline to that point and increase thereafter. The consistency of the finding renders some of the previous debate moot. Furthermore, this robust result is supportive of much theoretical discussion from different disciplines and areas of enquiry.

Keywords: Age; Ageing; lifespan development; wellbeing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 p.
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-inv
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp1235

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