If policy-makers care about well-being, they need a recursive model of how adult life-satisfaction is predicted by childhood influences, acting both directly and (indirectly) through adult circumstances. We estimate such a model using the British Cohort Study (1970). The most powerful childhood...

Adaptation, anticipation and social-reference effects on happiness are strongly interrelated phenomena. However, in the existing empirical literature these phenomena are mainly studied in isolation from each other. Therefore, using SOEP panel data for the years 1984–2007, this study offers an...

We consider the link between poverty and subjective well-being, and focus in particular on potential adaptation to poverty. We use panel data on almost 54,000 individuals living in Germany from 1985 to 2012 to show first that life satisfaction falls with both the incidence and intensity of...