The Impact of COVID-19 on Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Singapore

Terence Cheng (), Seonghoon Kim () and Kanghyock Koh ()
Additional contact information
Kanghyock Koh: Korea University

No 13702, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We provide novel evidence on how the COVID-19 global health and economic crisis is affecting overall life satisfaction and domain-specific satisfaction using data from a monthly longitudinal survey of middle-aged and older Singaporeans. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we document large declines in overall life satisfaction and domain-specific satisfaction during the COVID-19 outbreak, except satisfaction with health. These declines coincide with the introduction of a nationwide lockdown, with life satisfaction remaining below its pre-pandemic levels even after the lockdown is lifted. We also find that individuals who report a drop in household income during the COVID-19 outbreak experience a decline in overall life satisfaction almost twice as large as those who do not report any income loss.

Keywords: individual-level monthly panel data; subjective well-being; life satisfaction; pandemic; COVID-19; difference-in-differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E2 I12 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2020-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap, nep-hea, nep-mac and nep-sea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published - published as 'Life Satisfaction Changes And Adaptation In The Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence From Singapore' in: Singapore Economic Review, 2024, 69 (1), 1-34.

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp13702.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13702

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().