An adequate theory of Life Satisfaction (LS) needs to take account of both factors that tend to stabilise LS and those that change it. The most widely accepted theory in psychology - setpoint theory - focussed solely on stability. That theory is now regarded as inadequate since several national...

Two-way causation issues are the bete noire of life satisfaction research. As acknowledged in several landmark reviews, many variables routinely reported as causes or determinants of life satisfaction could equally well be consequences, or perhaps both causes and consequences (Diener, 1984; Diener,...

The purpose of the paper is to assess the theory that the downside risk insurance provided by more generous welfare states generates long run efficiency gains, which counterbalance the short run efficiency losses caused by work disincentives in these states (Feldstein 1974, 1976; Sinn 1995, 1996)....

Panel and life-course data are ideally suited to unraveling labor market dynamics, but their designs differ, with potential consequences for the estimated relationships. To gauge the extent to which these two data designs produce dissimilar transition rates and the causation thereof, we use the...

The increasing availability of longitudinal data on income in Europe greatly facilitates the analysis of income and poverty dynamics. In this paper, the results of longitudinal data- analyses on income and poverty in three European welfare states are reported. Using panel data for Germany, the...

Using longitudinal information on labour market participation we analyze the dynamics of unemployment in Europe. We focus in particular on individuals with a poor attachment to the labour market. The countries under scrutiny are clustered into four ideal-typical welfare regimes. Overall, a...