TY  - JOUR
AU  - Blanchflower,David G.
AU  - Oswald,Andrew
TI  - Is Well-being U-Shaped over the Life Cycle?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12935
PY  - 2007
Y2  - February 2007
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12935
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12935.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David G. Blanchflower
Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Economics
309B Silsby Hall
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH  03755-3514
Tel: 603/646-2536
Fax: 603/646-2122
E-Mail: david.g.blanchflower@dartmouth.edu

Andrew Oswald
Department of Economics
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL
England
Tel: 44-01203-5235
Fax: 44-01203-5230
E-Mail: a.j.oswald@warwick.ac.uk
AB  - Recent research has argued that psychological well-being is U-shaped through the life cycle.  The difficulty with such a claim is that there are likely to be omitted cohort effects (earlier generations may have been born in, say, particularly good or bad times).  Hence the apparent U may be an artifact.  Using data on approximately 500,000 Americans and Europeans, this paper designs a test that makes it possible to allow for different birth-cohorts.  A robust U-shape of happiness in age is found.  Ceteris paribus, well-being reaches a minimum, on both sides of the Atlantic, in people's mid to late 40s.  The paper also shows that in the United States the well-being of successive birth-cohorts has gradually fallen through time.  In Europe, newer birth-cohorts are happier.
ER  -