We propose a direct measure of altruism between parents and adult children, using survey data on happiness from the German Socio-Economic Panel for the years 2000–2004. The question of altruism within families has policy relevance, for example, to understand whether public transfers crowd out private ones. Previous empirical evidence, based on observed transfer behavior, has failed to establish...

This paper investigates the individual outcomes of irrational thinking, including paranormality and non-scientific thinking. These modes of thinking are identified by factor analysis from a 2008 survey. Income and happiness are used as measures of performance. Empirical results reveal that non-scientific thinking lowers income, whereas paranormality does not affect it. While non-scientific thin...

Demographers are interested in sex preferences for children because they can skew sex ratios and influence population-level fertility, parenting behavior, and family outcomes. Based on parity progression ratios, in most European countries, there are no sex preferences for a first child, but a strong preference for mixed-sex children. We hypothesize that mixed-sex preferences also influence pare...

questions about the good life and individual happiness have a long tradition in philosophy. For centuries, people developed ideas about the nature of human flourishing and well-being, its sources and its relevance for individual behavior. 1 Over the last decades, empirical research on subjective well-being in the social sciences has provided a major new stimulus of the discourse on individual h...

Don’t Worry, Be Happy? Happiness and Reemployment Subjective well-being is primarily treated as an outcome variable in the economic literature. However, is happiness also a driver of behavior and life’s outcomes? Rich survey data of recent entrants into unemployment in Germany show that a significant inverted U-shaped relationship exists between residual happiness and an unemployed individual’s...

It is widely believed that happiness is strongly correlated with wealth and income, but according to the happiness–income paradox, this is not always true. The paradox predicates that there is a strong positive correlation between income and happiness nationally, but the correlation is essentially absent in international comparisons, or in a long-term longitudinal comparison. This paradox has b...

The Heritage Foundation and the Fraser Institute measure economic freedom in nations using indices with ten and five indicators respectively. Eight of the Heritage indicators and four of the Fraser-indicators are about specific types of institutional quality, like rule of law, the protection of property, and the provision of sound money. More of these is considered to denote more economic freed...

A comprehensive definition of successful ageing would combine the elements of survival (longevity), health (lack of disability), and life satisfaction (happiness). Predictors of longevity include being female, being physically active, not smoking, having good cognitive functioning, higher socio-economic status and greater life satisfaction. Predictors of life satisfaction include being healthy ...

The article analyzes various aspects of overall happiness expressed by 136 women in poverty who are victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Nicaragua, a country with low levels of development. The information was gathered using a structured interview. Results obtained show that despite the hardships they face, one half of the women in poverty who are victims of IPV say they are happy, and...