Well-Being over the Life Span: Semiparametric Evidence from British and German Longitudinal Data

Christoph Wunder, Andrea Wiencierz, Johannes Schwarze and Helmut Küchenhoff
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Christoph Wunder: University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Andrea Wiencierz: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich
Johannes Schwarze: University of Bamberg, DIW Berlin, and IZA Bonn
Helmut Küchenhoff: Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität Munich

The Review of Economics and Statistics, 2013, vol. 95, issue 1, 154-167

Abstract: This paper applies semiparametric regression models using penalized splines to investigate the profile of well-being over the life span. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), the analysis shows a common, and quite similar, age-specific pattern of life satisfaction for both Britain and Germany that can be characterized by three age stages. The evidence suggests that the U-shaped profile is a good approximation of decreasing and increasing well-being in the first and second stage. After people reached their late 60s, however, a decline in well-being is found in the third stage. © 2013 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Keywords: subjective well-being; life satisfaction; semiparametric regression; penalized splines (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 C23 D10 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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