This paper examines the relationships between socioeconomic conditions and happiness or satisfaction of individuals in 15 countries. In agreement with earlier studies, age, health and marital status are strongly associated with happiness and satisfaction. In seeming contrast with other studies, unemployment does not appear to be associated with happiness, although it is clearly associated with satisfaction. Income is also strongly associated with satisfaction, but its association with happiness is weaker. These results point to happiness and satisfaction as two distinct spheres of well-being. While the first would be relatively independent of economic factors, the second would be strongly dependent. Este trabajo examina las relaciones entre las condiciones socioeconómicas y la felicidad o la satisfacción de individuos de 15 países. De acuerdo con estudios anteriores, la edad, la salud y el estado civil están fuertemente asociadas con la felicidad y la satisfacción. En contraste aparente con otros estudios, el desempleo no parece estar asociado con la felicidad, aunque lo está claramente con la satisfacción. La renta también está fuertemente asociada con la satisfacción, pero su asociación con la felicidad es más débil. Estos resultados sugieren que la felicidad y la satisfacción constituyen dos ámbitos distintos del bienestar. Mientras que el primero sería relativamente independiente de factores económicos, el segundo dependería fuertemente de estos factores.
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Paper provided by Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie) in its series Working Papers. Serie EC with number
2002-21.
Find related papers by JEL classification: A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - General Welfare
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.:
Clark, Andrew E & Oswald, Andrew J, 1994.
"Unhappiness and Unemployment,"
Economic Journal,
Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(424), pages 648-59, May.
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