Lags and Leads in Life Satisfaction: A Test of the Baseline Hypothesis

Arbeitspapier

We look for evidence of habituation in twenty waves of German panel data: do individuals, after life and labour market events, tend to return to some baseline level of well-being? Although the strongest life satisfaction effect is often at the time of the event, we find significant lag and lead effects. We cannot reject the hypothesis of complete adaptation to marriage, divorce, widowhood, birth of child, and layoff. However, there is little evidence of adaptation to unemployment for men. Men are somewhat more affected by labour market events (unemployment and layoffs) than are women, but in general the patterns of anticipation and adaptation are remarkably similar by sex.

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• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research ; No. 84

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; General Welfare; Well-Being ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Labor Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs ; Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
• Subject: Life satisfaction ; anticipation ; adaptation ; baseline satisfaction ; labour market and life events

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Clark, Andrew E. ; Diener, Ed ; Georgellis, Yannis ; Lucas, Richard E.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2008

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/150633