How globalization affects happiness is highly disputed. Several studies use an index that amalgamates globalization's different dimensions into a single variable. Unlike previous studies and in order to better illuminate its facets, we adopt a disaggregated perspective on trade (policy) data....

A historically high level of youth unemployment presents Greece with a huge social and economic challenge. This paper analyses various dimensions of this challenge. We argue that though the conventional definition of "youth" is the 16-24 age group, there is a strong case for considering 25 to...

Using self reported measures of life satisfaction and risk attitudes, we empirically test whether there is a relationship between individuals inequality and risk aversion. The empirical analysis uses the German SOEP household panel for the years 1997 to 2007 to conclude that the negative effect...

Happiness research has significantly extended our knowledge about the factors determining individual well-being. Several prominent scholars concluded that governments should engage in maximizing happiness. This approach is based on a technocratic notion that politicians are omniscient benevolent...

A huge research literature, across the behavioral and social sciences, uses information on individuals' subjective well-being. These are responses to questions - asked by survey interviewers or medical personnel - such as how happy do you feel on a scale from 1 to 4? Yet there is little...

Using self reported measures of life satisfaction and risk attitudes, we empirically test whether there is a relationship between individuals inequality and risk aversion. The empirical analysis uses the German SOEP household panel for the years 1997 to 2007 to conclude that the negative effect...

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...

Research appears to demonstrate that economic variables are only marginally predictive of levels of social satisfaction. It was hypothesised that a greater association might be found between satisfaction and equality of income distribution rather than between satisfaction and size of income. The...

A large empirical literature has debated the U-shaped happiness-age curve. This paper re-examines the relationship between various measures of well-being and age in one hundred and forty-five countries, including one hundred and nine developing countries, controlling for education, marital and...

Watching television is the most time-consuming human activity besides work but its role for individual well-being is unclear. Negative consequences portrayed in the literature raise the question whether this popular pastime constitutes an economic good or bad, and hence serves as a prime example...