What Predicts a Successful Life? A Life-Course Model of Well-Being

Richard Layard, Andrew Clark, Francesca Cornaglia, Nattavudh Powdthavee and James Vernoit
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James Vernoit: CEP, London School of Economics

No 7682, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: If policy-makers care about well-being, they need a recursive model of how adult life-satisfaction is predicted by childhood influences, acting both directly and (indirectly) through adult circumstances. We estimate such a model using the British Cohort Study (1970). The most powerful childhood predictor of adult life-satisfaction is the child's emotional health. Next comes the child's conduct. The least powerful predictor is the child's intellectual development. This has obvious implications for educational policy. Among adult circumstances, family income accounts for only 0.5% of the variance of life-satisfaction. Mental and physical health are much more important.

Keywords: life-course; model; intervention; life-satisfaction; well-being; emotional health; intellectual performance; conduct; success (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 D60 H00 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 64 pages
Date: 2013-10
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Published - published in: Economic Journal, 2014, 124 (580), F720- F738

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Related works:
Journal Article: What Predicts a Successful Life? A Life‐course Model of Well‐being (2014)
Working Paper: What predicts a successful life? A life-course model of well-being (2014)
Working Paper: What Predicts a Successful Life? A Life-course Model of Well-being (2014)
Working Paper: What Predicts a Successful Life? A Life-course Model of Well-being (2014)
Working Paper: What Predicts a Successful Life? A Life-Course Model of Well-Being (2013)
Working Paper: What predicts a successful life? A life-course model of well-being (2013)
Working Paper: What predicts a successful life? A life-course model of well-being (2013)
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