| Abstract: |
We explore the idea that happiness and psychological well-being are U-shaped
in age. The main difficulty with this argument is that there are likely to be
omitted cohort effects (earlier generations may have been born in, say,
particularly good or bad times). First, using data on 500,000 randomly sampled
Americans and West Europeans, the paper designs a test that controls for
cohort effects. A robust U-shape is found. Ceteris paribus, a typical
individual’s well-being reaches its minimum - on both sides of the Atlantic
and for both males and females - in middle age. We demonstrate this with a
quadratic structure and non-parametric forms. Second, some evidence is
presented for a U-shape in developing countries and the East European nations.
Third, using measures that are closer to psychiatric scores, we document a
comparable well-being curve across the life course in two other data sets: (i)
in GHQ-N6 mental health levels for a sample of 16,000 Europeans, and (ii) in
reported depression and anxiety among approximately 1 million U.K. citizens.
Fourth, we document occasional apparent exceptions, particularly in developing
nations, to the U-shape. Fifth, we note that American male birth cohorts seem
to have become progressively less happy with their lives. Our paper’s results
are based on regression equations in which other influences, such as
demographic variables and income, are held constant. |