Money and Mental Wellbeing: A Longitudinal Study of Medium-Sized Lottery Wins

Jonathan Gardner and Andrew Oswald
Additional contact information
Jonathan Gardner: Watson Wyatt Worldwide

The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) from University of Warwick, Department of Economics

Abstract: One of the famous questions in social science is whether money makes people happy. We offer new evidence by using longitudinal data on a random sample of Britons who receive medium-sized lottery wins of between £1000 and £120,000 (that is, up to approximately U.S. $200,000). When compared to two control groups -- one with no wins and the other with small wins -- these individuals go on eventually to exhibit significantly better psychological health. Two years after a lottery win, the average measured improvement in mental wellbeing is 1.4 GHQ points

Keywords: Psychological health; Happiness; GHQ; Income (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D1 I3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2006
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (53)

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https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/w ... s/2006/twerp_754.pdf

Related works:
Journal Article: Money and mental wellbeing: A longitudinal study of medium-sized lottery wins (2007)
Working Paper: Money and Mental Wellbeing: A Longitudinal Study of Medium-Sized Lottery Wins (2006)
Working Paper: Money and Mental Wellbeing: A Longitudinal Study of Medium-Sized Lottery Wins (2006)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wrk:warwec:754

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