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The Financial Crisis and the Well-Being of America

In: Investigations in the Economics of Aging

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  • Angus Deaton

Abstract

I use daily data on self-reported well-being (SWB) to examine how the Great Recession affected the emotional and evaluative lives of the population. In the fall of 2008 and lasting into the spring of 2009, at the bottom of the stock market, Americans reported sharp declines in their life evaluation, sharp increases in worry and stress, and declines in positive affect. By the end of 2010, in spite of continuing high unemployment, these measures had largely recovered. The SWB measures do a better job of monitoring short-run levels of anxiety than the medium-term evolution of the economy. Even very large macroeconomic shocks will cause small and hard to detect effects on SWB. Life evaluation questions are extremely sensitive to question order effects--asking political questions first reduces reported life evaluation by an amount that dwarfs the effects of even the worst of the crisis. Copyright 2012 Oxford University Press 2011 All rights reserved, Oxford University Press.

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This chapter was published in:

  • David A. Wise, 2012. "Investigations in the Economics of Aging," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number wise11-2, July.
    This item is provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Chapters with number 12447.

    Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:12447

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    1. Robert Metcalfe & Nattavudh Powdthavee & Paul Dolan, 2011. "Destruction and Distress: Using a Quasi‐Experiment to Show the Effects of the September 11 Attacks on Mental Well‐Being in the United Kingdom," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(550), pages F81-F103, February.
    2. Rajashri Chakrabarti & Donghoon Lee & Wilbert van der Klaauw & Basit Zafar, 2011. "Household debt and saving during the 2007 recession," Staff Reports 482, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    3. DiTella, Rafael & MacCulloch, Robert & Oswald, Andrew J., 2001. "Preferences over inflation and unemployment: Evidence from surveys of happiness," ZEI Working Papers B 03-2001, ZEI - Center for European Integration Studies, University of Bonn.
    4. DiTella, Rafael & MacCulloch, Robert & Oswald, Andrew J., 1999. "The macroeconomics of happiness," ZEI Working Papers B 03-1999, ZEI - Center for European Integration Studies, University of Bonn.
    5. Christelis, Dimitris & Georgarakos, Dimitris & Jappelli, Tullio, 2011. "Wealth shocks, unemployment shocks and consumption in the wake of the Great Recession," CFS Working Paper Series 2011/27, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    6. Michael Hurd & Susann Rohwedder, 2010. "Effects of the Financial Crisis and Great Recession on American Households," Working Papers 810, RAND Corporation Publications Department.
    7. Andrew E. Clark & Andreas Knabe & Steffen Rätzel, 2008. "Boon or Bane? Others' unemployment, well-being and job insecurity," PSE Working Papers halshs-00586022, HAL.
    8. Graham, Carol & Eggers, Andrew & Sukhtankar, Sandip, 2004. "Does happiness pay?: An exploration based on panel data from Russia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 319-342, November.
    9. repec:hal:wpaper:halshs-00586022 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. repec:pse:psecon:2008-67 is not listed on IDEAS
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    Cited by:
    1. Cojocaru, Alexandru & Diagne, Mame Fatou, 2013. "How reliable and consistent are subjective measures of welfare in Europe and Central Asia ? evidence from the second life in transition survey," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6359, The World Bank.
    2. Marcus Klemm, 2011. "You Don‘t Know what You‘ve got till It‘s Gone! Unemployment and Intertemporal Changes in Self-Reported Life Satisfaction," Ruhr Economic Papers 0297, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.

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