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The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness

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Author Info
Betsey Stevenson
Justin Wolfers

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Abstract

The lives of women in the United States have improved over the past 35 years by many objective measures, yet we show that measures of subjective well-being indicate that women's happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to men. This decline in relative wellbeing is found across various datasets, measures of subjective wellbeing, demographic groups, and industrialized countries. Relative declines in female happiness have eroded a gender gap in happiness in which women in the 1970s reported higher subjective well-being than did men. These declines have continued and a new gender gap is emerging -- one with higher subjective well-being for men. (JEL I31, J16, J28)

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Publisher Info
Article provided by American Economic Association in its journal American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.

Volume (Year): 1 (2009)
Issue (Month): 2 (August)
Pages: 190-225
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Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:1:y:2009:i:2:p:190-225

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew J. Oswald, 2000. "Well-Being Over Time in Britain and the USA," NBER Working Papers 7487, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers, 2007. "Marriage and Divorce: Changes and their Driving Forces," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 27-52, Spring.
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  3. Daniel Kahneman & Alan B. Krueger, 2006. "Developments in the Measurement of Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 3-24, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Silvia Pezzini, 2005. "The Effect of Women's Rights on Women's Welfare: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(502), pages C208-C227, 03. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2007. "Measuring Trends in Leisure: The Allocation of Time over Five Decades," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 122(3), pages 969-1006, 08. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Bjørnskov, Christian & Dreher, Axel & Fischer, Justina AV, 2007. "On Gender Inequality and Life Satisfaction: Does Discrimination Matter?," Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 657, Stockholm School of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. David G. Blanchflower, 2008. "International evidence on well-being," NBER Working Papers 14318, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Stefano Bartolini & Ennio Bilancini & Maurizio Pugno, 2008. "Did the Decline in Social Capital Depress Americans’ Happiness?," Department of Economics University of Siena 540, Department of Economics, University of Siena. [Downloadable!]
  3. Talya Miron-Shatz, 2009. ""Am I going to be happy and financially stable?": How American women feel when they think about financial security," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 4(1), pages 102-112, February. [Downloadable!]
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-26.

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