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Sociability and Happiness

Author

Listed:
  • Becchetti, Leonardo

    (Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit)

  • Pelloni, Alessandra

    (Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit)

  • Rossetti, Fiammetta

    (Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit)

Abstract

The standard specification of utility functions in economic models usually neglects the effect of sociability on happiness. Our level and first difference panel estimates show that relational goods have significant and positive effects on self declared life satisfaction, net of the impact of standard controls included in these kinds of estimates. The estimation of a panel GMM VAR system shows that such effects remain significant when the inverse causality nexus is taken into account.

Suggested Citation

  • Becchetti, Leonardo & Pelloni, Alessandra & Rossetti, Fiammetta, 2007. "Sociability and Happiness," AICCON Working Papers 44-2007, Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:aiccon:2007_044
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Osea Giuntella, 2012. "Do immigrants squeeze natives out of bad schedules? Evidence from Italy," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-21, December.
    2. Leonardo Becchetti & Alessandra Pelloni, 2013. "What are we learning from the life satisfaction literature?," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 60(2), pages 113-155, June.
    3. Stefano Bartolini & Ennio Bilancini, 2011. "Social Participation and Hours Worked," Department of Economics University of Siena 620, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    4. Perez Truglia, Ricardo Nicolas, 2007. "Conspicuous consumption in the land of Prince Charming," MPRA Paper 22009, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 22 Mar 2010.
    5. Pénard, Thierry & Poussing, Nicolas & Suire, Raphaël, 2013. "Does the Internet make people happier?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 105-116.
    6. BARTOLINI Stefano & SARRACINO Francesco, 2011. "Happy for How Long? How Social Capital and GDP relate to Happiness over Time," LISER Working Paper Series 2011-60, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    7. Francesco Sarracino, 2014. "Richer in Money, Poorer in Relationships and Unhappy? Time Series Comparisons of Social Capital and Well-Being in Luxembourg," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 115(2), pages 561-622, January.
    8. Stefano Bartolini & Ennio Bilancini & Francesco Sarracino, 2013. "Predicting the Trend of Well-Being in Germany: How Much Do Comparisons, Adaptation and Sociability Matter?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 169-191, November.
    9. Schwarz, Peter, 2012. "Neighborhood effects of high unemployment rates: Welfare implications among different social groups," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 180-188.
    10. Stefano Bartolini & Ennio Bilancini & Maurizio Pugno, 2013. "Did the Decline in Social Connections Depress Americans’ Happiness?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(3), pages 1033-1059, February.
    11. Riccardo Cappellin, 2011. "Growth, Consumption and Knowledge Cities," Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management, University of Milano-Bicocca, issue 2 Global , pages 6-22.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    sociability; happiness; relational goods;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values

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