Genes, Economics and Happiness

Nicholas A. Christakis, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, James H. Fowler and Bruno Frey

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: A major finding from research into the sources of subjective well-being is that individuals exhibit a "baseline" level of happiness. We explore the influence of genetic variation by employing a twin design and genetic association study. We first show that about 33% of the variation in happiness is explained by genes. Next, using two independent data sources, we present evidence that individuals with a transcriptionally more efficient version of the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) report significantly higher levels of life satisfaction. These results are the first to identify a specific gene that is associated with happiness and suggest that behavioral models benefit from integrating genetic variation.

Keywords: wellbeing; socio-demographics; happiness; genetics; life satisfaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 D03 D87 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-hap, nep-hpe and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (35)

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https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1127.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Genes, Economics, and Happiness (2010)
Working Paper: Genes, Economics, and Happiness (2010)
Working Paper: Genes, economics, and happiness (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1127

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