IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ireced/v17y2014icp85-97.html

The happiness of economists: Estimating the causal effect of studying economics on subjective well-being

Author

Listed:
  • Haucap, Justus
  • Heimeshoff, Ulrich

Abstract

This is the first paper that studies the causal effect of studying economics on subjective well being. Based on a survey among 918 students of economics and other social sciences, we estimate the effects of studying in the different fields on individual life satisfaction. Controlling for personal characteristics we apply innovative instrumental variable methods developed in labor and conflict economics. We find a positive relationship between the study of economics and individual well-being. Additionally, we also find that income and future job chances are the most important drivers of happiness for participants of our survey.

Suggested Citation

  • Haucap, Justus & Heimeshoff, Ulrich, 2014. "The happiness of economists: Estimating the causal effect of studying economics on subjective well-being," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 85-97.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ireced:v:17:y:2014:i:c:p:85-97
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iree.2014.08.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1477388014000292
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.iree.2014.08.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Carlos J. Asarta & Frank G. Mixon Jr., 2019. "Publishing and Scholarship in Economic Education: A Catalog and Assessment," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 64(2), pages 269-281, October.
    2. Alan Piper, 2014. "Zukunftsangst! Fear of (and Hope for) the Future and Its Impact on Life Satisfaction," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 706, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    3. Alan Piper, 2022. "Optimism, pessimism and life satisfaction: an empirical investigation," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(2), pages 177-208, June.
    4. Janhuba, Radek, 2019. "Do victories and losses matter? Effects of football on life satisfaction," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 75(PB).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    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:eee:ireced:v:17:y:2014:i:c:p:85-97. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-review-of-economics-education .

    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.