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Lost in Transition: Life Satisfaction on the Road to Capitalism

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  • Easterlin, Richard A.

    () (University of Southern California)

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    Abstract

    In the transition from socialism to capitalism in Eastern Europe life satisfaction has followed the V-shaped pattern of GDP but failed to recover commensurately. In general, increased satisfaction with material living levels has occurred at the expense of decreased satisfaction with work, health, and family life. Disparities in life satisfaction have increased markedly with those hardest hit being the less educated and persons over age 30; women and men have suffered about equally. The asymmetric response of life satisfaction to decreases in GDP in transition countries and increases in GDP in non-transition countries is arguably due to loss aversion.

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    File URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp3409.pdf
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    Bibliographic Info

    Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 3409.

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    Length: 45 pages
    Date of creation: Mar 2008
    Date of revision:
    Publication status: published in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2009, 71 (2), 130-145
    Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3409

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    Related research

    Keywords: transition; capitalism; socialism; loss aversion; happiness;

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    References

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    1. Peter Sanfey & Utku Teksoz, 2007. "Does transition make you happy?," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 15, pages 707-731, October.
    2. 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.
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    18. Sobotka, Tomáš, 2002. "Ten years of rapid fertility changes in the European post-communist countries. Evidence and interpretation," Research Reports 02-01, University of Groningen, Population Research Centre (PRC).
    19. Andrew E. Clark & Paul Frijters & Michael A. Shields, 2006. "Income and happiness: Evidence, explanations and economic implications," PSE Working Papers halshs-00590436, HAL.
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Real freedom & unhappiness
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2009-06-19 11:39:00
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    Cited by:
    1. Irena Grosfeld & Claudia Senik, 2008. "The Emerging Aversion to Inequality: Evidence from Poland 1992-2005," CASE Network Studies and Analyses 0360, CASE-Center for Social and Economic Research.
    2. Irena Grosfeld & Claudia Senik, 2009. "The emerging aversion to inequality - Evidence from long subjective data," Working Papers halshs-00586788, HAL.

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