The U-shape without controls: A response to Glenn

David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald

Social Science & Medicine, 2009, vol. 69, issue 4, 486-488

Abstract: This paper is a continuation of results reported in our article "Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle?" (Blanchflower & Oswald, 2008). It provides new evidence that well-being follows a curve through life. We use data on half a million randomly sampled individuals across eight major European nations. Importantly, we show that in this set of countries there is a U-shape even in unadjusted data, that is, without the inclusion of control variables. But we also advise against a focus on elementary bivariate associations.

Keywords: Happiness; Aging; Well-being; Mental-health; Depression; Life-course (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (47)

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