Showing papers by "Richard A. Easterlin published in 2006"
TL;DR: In the United States happiness rises slightly, on average, from ages 18 to midlife, and declines slowly thereafter as discussed by the authors, which is consistent with a bottom-up model in which happiness is the net outcome of both objective and subjective factors in various life domains.
559 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace the history of the social indicators or quality-of-life (QOL) research movement up to today, forecast future developments, and pave the way for future growth.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to trace the history of the social indicators or quality-of-life (QOL) research movement up to today, forecast future developments, and pave the way for future growth. Broadly speaking, we tried to review historical antecedents from the point of view of different disciplines, with specialists in each discipline preparing the basic text and co-authors helping to polish the material into a finished product. Briefly, we begin with an overview of the conceptual and philosophical foundations of our field of research. That is followed by a historical overview of the sociological roots of our field. In the third section, the main contributions from the discipline of economics are reviewed. Following that, the fourth section covers a historical overview of the literature on health-related quality of life is provided. Next, the history of QOL research from a marketing perspective is reviewed followed by a history from the perspectives of industrial/organizational psychology and management. Finally, we offer some forecasts for future QOL studies that are intended not only to predict what might happen, but to encourage, stimulate and motivate researchers to undertake new initiatives.
347 citations
TL;DR: For example, the authors found that those who cohabit prior to marriage have an increase in life satisfaction significantly above the baseline, while those in first marriages are selective with regard to a number of socioeconomic characteristics but not in regard to personality traits.
Abstract: In Germany the life satisfaction of those in first marriages traces the following average course. Starting from a baseline of life satisfaction in noncohabiting years one or more years prior to marriage, those who cohabit prior to marriage have an increase in life satisfaction significantly above the baseline. In the year of marriage and that immediately following, the life satisfaction of those in first marriages, prior cohabitors and noncohabitors combined, increases to a value even further above the baseline, significantly higher than for premarital cohabitors. Thereafter, life satisfaction of those in first marriages drops, but remains significantly above the baseline, at the same level as for premarital cohabitors. Compared with the population generally, those in first marriages are selective with regard to a number of socioeconomic characteristics, but not in regard to personality traits. Those whose first marriage ends in separation or divorce have a life satisfaction trajectory in the years before and during marriage not significantly different from that described above, but separation or divorce reduces this group’s life satisfaction to the original baseline value. This group differs significantly from the first marriage population as a whole in its selectivity – lower socioeconomic status and personality traits less conducive to marriage. The roots of prospective dissolution thus apparently lie in this group’s distinctive socioeconomic and personality traits, and not in a disparate course of life satisfaction in the first years of marriage.
295 citations
Posted Content•
01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: Easterlin this paper argues that free markets have been the source of human improvement, but only a start, and proposes to merge economics with concepts and data from other social sciences, and with quantitative and qualitative history.
Abstract: Where is rapid economic growth taking us? Why has its spread throughout the world been so limited? What are the causes of the great twentieth century advance in life expectancy? Of the revolution in childbearing that is bringing fertility worldwide to near replacement levels? Have free markets been the source of human improvement? Economics provides a start on these questions, but only a start, argues economist Richard A. Easterlin. To answer them calls for merging economics with concepts and data from other social sciences, and with quantitative and qualitative history. Easterlin demonstrates this approach in seeking answers to these and other questions about world or American experience in the last two centuries, drawing on economics, demography, sociology, history, and psychology. The opening chapter gives an autobiographical account of the evolution of this approach, and why Easterlin is a 'reluctant economist'.
2 citations