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Choices Which Change Life Satisfaction: Evidence from Germany, Britain & Australia*
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Headey, Bruce W. Muffels, Ruud Wagner, Gert G. |
| Copyright Year | 2013 |
| Abstract | Evidence from panel surveys in Australia, Britain and Germany shows that individual choices relating to life priorities/values, partner’s personality, hours of work, social participation and healthy lifestyle have substantial effects on life satisfaction. The results have negative implications for a widely accepted theory of happiness, set-point theory. This theory holds that adult happiness is stable in the medium and long term, although temporary fluctuations occur due to life events. Set-point theory has come under increasing criticism in recent years, primarily due to unmistakable evidence in the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) that, during the last 25 years, over a third of the population has recorded substantial and apparently permanent changes in life satisfaction (Fujita and Diener, 2005; Headey, 2008a; Headey, Muffels and Wagner, 2010). It is becoming clear that the main challenge now for happiness researchers is to develop new explanations which can account for medium and long term change, and not merely stability in happiness. Set-point theory is limited precisely because it is purely a theory of stability. JEL Classification: I31, J1, Z13 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://www.diw.de/documents/dokumentenarchiv/17/diw_01.c.426650.de/soep30_paper_headey.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
