Journal Article

Well-being over the life span: semiparametric evidence from British and German longitudinal data

By Christoph Wunder, Andrea Wiencierz, Johannes Schwarze and Helmut Küchenhoff

Publication details

Publication date
Published in
Review of Economics and Statistics
Volume
95
Pages
pp. 154–167
Publisher
MIT Press
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00222
ISSN
346535

Abstract

This paper applies This paper applies semiparametric regression models using penalized splines to investigate the profile of well-being over the life span. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), the analysis shows a common, and quite similar, age-specific pattern of life satisfaction for both Britain and Germany that can be characterized by three age stages. The evidence suggests that the U-shaped profile is a good approximation of decreasing and increasing well-being in the first and second stage. After people reached their late 60s, however, a decline in well-being is found in the third stage.

Notes

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