Is happiness different from flourishing? Cross-Country Evidence from the ESS

Andrew Clark and Claudia Senik ()

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Abstract: This paper appeals to novel survey information on over 30 000 individuals in 21 European countries to address an important and controversial question with respect to well-being: Do cognitive, hedonic and eudaimonic measures of well-being reflect very different aspects of individual quality of life? Or, more precisely, do the subjective appreciation of these dimensions by individuals exhibit different patterns? Our empirical results first reveal a very significant correlation between happiness and life satisfaction. Second, someone with high standard "hedonic" well-being (happiness or life satisfaction) is likely to have high eudaimonic well-being as well (flourishing, vitality, resilience and functioning). In addition, the factors that are correlated with the different measures of well-being seem to be very similar at the individual level. For example, marriage, higher income and greater education are associated with greater satisfaction, but also with higher levels of flourishing, vitality, resilience and functioning. This fit is not perfect, however, and men notably report lower levels of standard well-being measures, but higher eudaimonic well-being.

Keywords: Happiness; Life Satisfaction; Eudaimonia; European Social Survey; Bonheur; Satisfaction; Eudemonia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (54)

Published in Revue d'économie politique, 2011, 121 (1), pp.17-34. ⟨10.3917/redp.211.0017⟩

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Related works:
Journal Article: Is Happiness Different From Flourishing? Cross-Country Evidence from the ESS (2011)
Working Paper: Is happiness different from flourishing? Cross-Country Evidence from the ESS (2011)
Working Paper: Is happiness different from flourishing? Cross-country evidence from the ESS (2011)
Working Paper: Is happiness different from flourishing? Cross-country evidence from the ESS (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00654661

DOI: 10.3917/redp.211.0017

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