IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cep/cepdps/dp1474.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Happiness at work

Author

Listed:
  • Jan-Emmanuel De Neve
  • George Ward

Abstract

Happiness is typically defined by how people experience and evaluate their lives as a whole. Since the majority of people spend much of their lives at work, it is critically important to gain a solid understanding of the role that employment and the workplace play in shaping happiness for individuals and communities around the world. In this paper, we focus largely on the role of work and employment in shaping people's happiness, and investigate how employment status, job type, and workplace characteristics relate to measures of subjective wellbeing.

Suggested Citation

  • Jan-Emmanuel De Neve & George Ward, 2017. "Happiness at work," CEP Discussion Papers dp1474, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1474
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1474.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew E. Clark & Yannis Georgellis, 2013. "Back to Baseline in Britain: Adaptation in the British Household Panel Survey," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 80(319), pages 496-512, July.
    2. Andrew E. Clark, 2003. "Unemployment as a Social Norm: Psychological Evidence from Panel Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(2), pages 289-322, April.
    3. Blanchflower, David G. & Oswald, Andrew J., 2004. "Well-being over time in Britain and the USA," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(7-8), pages 1359-1386, July.
    4. Petri Böckerman & Pekka Ilmakunnas, 2012. "The Job Satisfaction-Productivity Nexus: A Study Using Matched Survey and Register Data," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(2), pages 244-262, April.
    5. Clark, Andrew E & Georgellis, Yannis & Sanfey, Peter, 2001. "Scarring: The Psychological Impact of Past Unemployment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(270), pages 221-241, May.
    6. Robert J. MacCulloch & Rafael Di Tella & Andrew J. Oswald, 2001. "Preferences over Inflation and Unemployment: Evidence from Surveys of Happiness," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 335-341, March.
    7. Simon Luechinger & Stephan Meier & Alois Stutzer, 2010. "Why Does Unemployment Hurt the Employed?: Evidence from the Life Satisfaction Gap Between the Public and the Private Sector," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(4), pages 998-1045.
    8. Sonja C. Kassenboehmer & John P. Haisken‐DeNew, 2009. "You're Fired! The Causal Negative Effect of Entry Unemployment on Life Satisfaction," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(536), pages 448-462, March.
    9. Andrew E. Clark & Ed Diener & Yannis Georgellis & Richard E. Lucas, 2008. "Lags And Leads in Life Satisfaction: a Test of the Baseline Hypothesis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(529), pages 222-243, June.
    10. De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel & Oswald, Andrew J., 2012. "Estimating the influence of life satisfaction and positive affect on later income using sibling fixed-effects," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 51523, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Andreas Knabe & Steffen Rätzel, 2011. "Scarring or Scaring? The Psychological Impact of Past Unemployment and Future Unemployment Risk," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 78(310), pages 283-293, April.
    12. Alex Bryson & George MacKerron, 2017. "Are You Happy While You Work?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(599), pages 106-125, February.
    13. Anonymous, 2013. "Introduction to the Issue," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 243-243, December.
    14. John F. Helliwell & Haifang Huang, 2014. "New Measures Of The Costs Of Unemployment: Evidence From The Subjective Well-Being Of 3.3 Million Americans," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(4), pages 1485-1502, October.
    15. StÈphane Bonhomme & GrÈgory Jolivet, 2009. "The pervasive absence of compensating differentials," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(5), pages 763-795.
    16. Freeman, Richard B, 1978. "Job Satisfaction as an Economic Variable," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(2), pages 135-141, May.
    17. Anonymous, 2013. "Introduction to the Issue," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 129-130, November.
    18. Edmans, Alex, 2011. "Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 621-640, September.
    19. Benjamin M. Artz & Amanda H. Goodall & Andrew J. Oswald, 2017. "Boss Competence and Worker Well-Being," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 70(2), pages 419-450, March.
    20. Andrew E. Clark, 2010. "Work and Well-Being," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 8(04), pages 17-21, January.
    21. Andrew Clark & Yannis Georgellis & Peter Sanfey, 2001. "Scarring: The Psychological Impact of Past Unemployment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(270), pages 221-241, May.
    22. Alex Bryson & George MacKerron, 2017. "Are You Happy While You Work?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(599), pages 106-125, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rose, Damaris & Stavrova, Olga, 2019. "Does life satisfaction predict reemployment? Evidence form German panel data," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-11.
    2. Santiago Lago-Peñas & Elena Rivo-López & Alberto Vaquero-García & Mónica Villanueva-Villar, 2018. "Do family firms contribute to job stability? Evidence from the great recession," Working Papers. Collection C: Family business 1801, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    3. Binder, Martin & Blankenberg, Ann-Kathrin, 2021. "Self-employment and Subjective Well-Being," GLO Discussion Paper Series 744, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Bellet, Clément S. & De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel & Ward, George, 2019. "Does employee happiness have an impact on productivity?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103428, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Clark, Andrew E. & Kozák, Michal, 2023. "Twenty Years of Job Quality in OECD Countries: More Good News?," IZA Discussion Papers 16597, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Nikolova, Milena, 2018. "Self-Employment Can Be Good for Your Health," GLO Discussion Paper Series 226, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. Beja, Edsel Jr., 2016. "Subjective Well-Being Approach to Valuing Unemployment: Direct and Indirect Cost," MPRA Paper 101080, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Retno Dwiyanti & Elfrida Khoerunnisa, 2021. "Job Satisfaction, Spirituality, And Happiness Of The Employee Of Correctional Institution," Social Values & Society (SVS), Zibeline International Publishing, vol. 3(1), pages 40-43, August.
    9. FitzRoy, Felix & Nolan, Michael A., 2020. "Towards Economic Democracy and Social Justice: Profit Sharing, Co-Determination, and Employee Ownership," IZA Discussion Papers 13238, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Sebastjan Škerlič & Vanja Erčulj, 2021. "The Impact of Financial and Non-Financial Work Incentives on the Safety Behavior of Heavy Truck Drivers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-14, March.
    11. Mikael Nordenmark & Bodil J. Landstad & Åsa Tjulin & Stig Vinberg, 2023. "Life Satisfaction among Self-Employed People in Different Welfare Regimes during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Significance of Household Finances and Concerns about Work," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-13, March.
    12. Wijngaards, Indy & Hendriks, Martijn & Burger, Martijn J., 2019. "Steering towards happiness: An experience sampling study on the determinants of happiness of truck drivers," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 131-148.
    13. Erman Çakıt & Waldemar Karwowski & Tadeusz Marek & Magdalena Jaworek & Grzegorz Wrobel, 2020. "A Cross-Sectional Study of the Relationships between Work-Related Affective Feelings Expressed by Workers in Turkey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-13, December.
    14. Felix R. FitzRoy & Michael A. Nolan, 2020. "Education, income and happiness: panel evidence for the UK," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 58(5), pages 2573-2592, May.
    15. C. P. Barrington-Leigh & Katja Lemermeyer, 2023. "A Public, Open, and Independently-Curated Database of Happiness Coefficients," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1505-1531, April.
    16. Noel Semple, 2021. "Good Enough for Government Work? Life-Evaluation and Public Policy," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1119-1140, March.
    17. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve & Christian Krekel & George Ward, 2019. "Employee wellbeing, productivity and firm performance," CEP Discussion Papers dp1605, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Clemens Hetschko & Andreas Knabe & Ronnie Schöb, 2019. "Looking Back in Anger? Retirement and Unemployment Scarring," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(3), pages 1105-1129, June.
    2. Clemens Hetschko, 2016. "On the misery of losing self-employment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 461-478, August.
    3. Adrian Chadi & Clemens Hetschko, 2021. "How Job Changes Affect People's Lives — Evidence from Subjective Well‐Being Data," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(2), pages 279-306, June.
    4. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve & Christian Krekel & George Ward, 2019. "Employee wellbeing, productivity and firm performance," CEP Discussion Papers dp1605, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. Andrew E. Clark, 2018. "Four Decades of the Economics of Happiness: Where Next?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(2), pages 245-269, June.
    6. Thi Truong An Hoang & Andreas Knabe, 2021. "Time Use, Unemployment, and Well-Being: An Empirical Analysis Using British Time-Use Data," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 2525-2548, August.
    7. Martin Binder & Alex Coad, 2015. "Heterogeneity in the Relationship Between Unemployment and Subjective Wellbeing: A Quantile Approach," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82(328), pages 865-891, October.
    8. Bäker, Agnes & Goodall, Amanda H., 2020. "Feline followers and “umbrella carriers”: Department Chairs’ influence on faculty job satisfaction and quit intentions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(4).
    9. Powdthavee, Nattavudh & Stutzer, Alois, 2014. "Economic Approaches to Understanding Change in Happiness," IZA Discussion Papers 8131, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Christian Scheve & Frederike Esche & Jürgen Schupp, 2017. "The Emotional Timeline of Unemployment: Anticipation, Reaction, and Adaptation," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 1231-1254, August.
    11. Krause, Annabelle, 2013. "Don’t worry, be happy? Happiness and reemployment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 1-20.
    12. Shivani Taneja, 2019. "Gender Gap In Job Utility Of British Workers," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 9010643, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    13. Suppa, Nicolai, 2021. "Unemployment and subjective well-being," GLO Discussion Paper Series 760, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    14. Antje Mertens & Miriam Beblo, 2016. "Self-Reported Satisfaction and the Economic Crisis of 2007–2010: Or How People in the UK and Germany Perceive a Severe Cyclical Downturn," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(2), pages 537-565, January.
    15. Andrew E. Clark, 2015. "SWB as a Measure of Individual Well-Being," Working Papers halshs-01134483, HAL.
    16. Dominik Buttler, 2022. "Employment Status and Well-Being Among Young Individuals. Why Do We Observe Cross-Country Differences?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 409-437, November.
    17. Andreas Knabe & Steffen Rätzel & Ronnie Schöb & Joachim Weimann, 2010. "Dissatisfied with Life but Having a Good Day: Time-use and Well-being of the Unemployed," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(547), pages 867-889, September.
    18. Shivani Taneja, 2019. "Working Hours And Trends In Job Satisfaction Using A Panel Of British Workers," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 9912075, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    19. Andrew J. Oswald & Eugenio Proto & Daniel Sgroi, 2015. "Happiness and Productivity," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(4), pages 789-822.
    20. Norton, Edward C. & Nizalova, Olena & Murtazashvili, Irina, 2018. "Does past unemployment experience explain the transition happiness gap?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 736-753.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    subjective wellbeing; employment; job type; job characteristics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1474. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/discussion-papers/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.