Happiness of economists

Lars Feld, Sarah Necker and Bruno Frey

No 13/7, Freiburg Discussion Papers on Constitutional Economics from Walter Eucken Institut e.V.

Abstract: This study investigates the determinants of economists' life satisfaction. The analysis is based on a survey of professional, mostly academic economists from European countries and beyond. We find that certain features of economists' professional situation influence their well-being. Happiness is increased by having more research time while the lack of a tenured position decreases satisfaction in particular if the contract expires in the near future or cannot be extended. Surprisingly, publication success has no effect on satisfaction. While the perceived level of external pressure also has no impact, the perceived change of pressure in recent years has. Economists may have accepted a high level of pressure when entering academia but do not seem to be willing to cope with the increase observed in recent years.

Keywords: happiness; academic labor market; extrinsic and intrinsic motivation; publish or perish-culture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A11 I31 J28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap, nep-hpe, nep-ltv, nep-pke and nep-sog
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/88111/1/772165831.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Happiness of economists (2015)
Working Paper: Happiness of Economists (2014)
Working Paper: Happiness of economists (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:aluord:137

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