We study the effect of relational goods on life satisfaction. We consider that retirement is an event after which the time investable in personal relationships increases so we instrument social life, which we suspect of being endogenous, with the sample proportion of retired by year. With such...

We study the effect of relational goods on life satisfaction. We consider that retirement is an event after which the time investable in personal relationships increases so we instrument social life, which we suspect of being endogenous, with the sample proportion of retired by year. With such...

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

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 standard specification of utility functions in economic models usually neglects the effect of sociability on happiness. Our level and first difference panel estimates show that relational goods have significant and positive effects on self declared life satisfaction, net of the impact of...

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...

The role of sociability and relational goods has generally been neglected in the formulation of standard economics textbook preferences. Our findings show that relational goods have significant and positive effects on self declared life satisfaction, net of the impact of other concurring...

This paper empirically investigates the impact of relational goods on individual life satisfaction. By relational goods we indicate the affective/expressive, non instrumental, side of interpersonal relationships. The homo oeconomicus view of human nature is questioned by the recent upsurge of...

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...