An individual's financial situation positively impacts her subjective well-being (SWB) according to the literature. However, most existing studies focus solely on income, neglecting other aspects of an individual's financial situation such as wealth. In this paper, we empirically examine the...

This study examines possible positive spillovers and negative consumption externalities of the average income in a geographic area (locality income) on individuals’ life satisfaction, focusing on two issues. The first is whether the effect of locality income on life satisfaction is sensitive...

Empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that an individual’s position in an income stratum—more than the absolute income level—determines subjective well-being. However, studies on subjective well-being suffer from a critical methodological weakness: they use exogenously defined...

Self-serving attributional bias (SSAB) is defined as the tendency to attribute positive situations to internal, stable and global causes, and negative situations to external, unstable and specific causes. SSAB, like other manifestations of the self-enhancement motive, is aimed at protecting...

This study investigates two distinct but interrelated phenomena—that of experienced leisure and that of perceived leisure—in order to determine empirically whether and how the perception and use of free time affects an individual’s level of satisfaction. The analysis was conducted on a...

Happiness measures, reflecting individuals’ well-being, have received increasing attention by policy makers. Policies could target absolute happiness levels when aiming at increasing a society’s well-being. But given upper bounds of happiness measures, as well as the possibilities of...

Major economic crises tend to be followed by crises in subjective well-being. Following the financial and debt crises, politicians and social scientists have engaged in heated discussions of ways to alleviate such losses. In particular, should governments intervene more or less? This paper...

Cross-cultural comparisons demonstrate that subjective well-being (SWB) is rated lower among East Asian than Western individuals. Regardless of such cultural differences, however, factors that predict SWB among people from various cultures may be similar. In the current study we demonstrate the...

This paper tests for differences in reported life satisfaction between married and cohabiting persons, i.e. the cohabitation gap, and in particular whether selection factors can explain the cohabitation gap. The paper also explores whether age at marriage and at start of cohabitation as well as...