Life satisfaction

Arbeitspapier

We analyze the determinants of global life satisfaction in two countries (The Netherlands and the U.S.), by using both self-reports and responses to a battery of vignette questions. We find global life satisfaction of happiness is well-described by four domains: job or daily activities, social contacts and family, health, and income. Among the four domains, social contacts and family have the highest impact on global life satisfaction, followed by job and daily activities and health. Income has the lowest impact. As in other work, we find that American response styles differ from the Dutch in that Americans are more likely to use the extremes of the scale (either very satisfied or very dissatisfied) than the Dutch, who are more inclined to stay in the middle of the scale. Although for both Americans and the Dutch, income is the least important determinant of global life satisfaction, it is more important in the U.S. than in The Netherlands. Indeed life satisfaction varies substantially more with income in the U.S. than in The Netherlands.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 4015

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; General Welfare; Well-Being ; Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy ; Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
• Subject: Happiness ; life satisfaction ; vignettes ; reporting bias ; Lebenszufriedenheit ; Meinung ; Einkommen ; Vergleich ; USA ; Niederlande

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Kapteyn, Arie ; Smith, James P. ; van Soest, Arthur
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2009

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/35314
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-20090304722
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET