Why the Happiest Moments in Life are Sometimes Short? The Role of Psychological Traits and Socio-Economic Circumstances

Magdalena Grabowska, Agata Górny and Małgorzata Kalbarczyk
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Małgorzata Kalbarczyk: University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences

No 2024-06, Working Papers from Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw

Abstract: This paper studies happiness’ variability in the course of life and examines how psychological and socio-economic factors influence the probability that an individual is capable of identifying the happiest period in life and its length. The study is based on SHARELIFE data and uses logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models. Results show that the personality traits significantly, but differently, influence the probability of isolating the happiest life period and its length. Importantly, both positive and negative socio-economic circumstances augment the probability of identifying the happiest period and shorten its duration. These circumstances relate to familial events and socioeconomic status in the life course. The happiest moments of life are thus concentrated around not only positive but also negative changes in life. Our results contribute to the research on changes in the levels of happiness by identifying factors shaping occurrence and duration of the most happiest moments in life.

Keywords: Subjective well-being; SHARELIFE; Retrospective data; Cox proportional hazards model; Big 5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 J10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap
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https://www.wne.uw.edu.pl/download_file/4030/0 First version, 2024 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:war:wpaper:2024-06

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