Our paper provides some novel evidence on the burgeoning literature on life satisfaction and relative comparisons by showing that in the last 30 years comparisons with the wellbeing of top income countries have generated progressively more negative feelings on a large sample of individuals in...

We investigate factors affecting happiness on a sample of Italian secondary school students. We find that money matters since familyÕs house ownership, mortgages and (class) relative wealth significantly affect life satisfaction. Other crucial factors are geographical residence (those living in...

We provide non experimental evidence of the relevance of sociability on subjective wellbeing by investigating the determinants of life satisfaction on a large sample of Europeans aged above 50. We document that voluntary work, religious attendance, helping friends/neighbours and participation to...

We propose a measure of life satisfaction, alternative to the standard synthetic cognitive wellbeing question, based on the specic contribution of eleven life satisfaction sub-components (including satisfaction about the past, life opportunities, hope for the future, vitality, control over one's...

Empirical analyses on the determinants of life satisfaction often include the impact of the number of children variable among available controls without fully discriminating between the two (socio- relational and pecuniary) components. In our empirical analysis on the German Socioeconomic Panel...

The recent availability of cross-sectional and longitudinal survey data on life satisfaction in a large number of countries gives us the opportunity to verify empirically (and not just to assume) what matters for individuals and what economists and policymakers should take into account when...

With an empirical analysis on a panel of individuals living in a transition country (Albania) we document that the impact of money on happiness does not depend only on the pecuniary outcome but also from aspirations and conditions leading to its determination. Additional factors which matter are...

The nexus between relational life and life satisfaction is riddled with endogeneity problems. By investigating the causal relationship going from the first to the second variable we consider that retirement is a shock which increases the time investable in (outside job) relational life. As a...