print

Studies

Wunder (2008): study DE 1985

Publication

Author(s):
Wunder, C.
Title:
Adaptation to Income over Time: A Weak Point of Subjective Well-Being.
Source:
SOEP Paper no 130, 2008, DIW, Berlin, Germany

Investigation

Public
18+ aged general public, Germany, followed 21 years, 1985-2006
Survey name
DE-SOEP combined waves
Sample
Probability multi-stage cluster sample
Respondents
N = 23757
Non Response
Assessment
Interview: face-to-face

Happiness Measure(s) and Distributional Findings

Full text:
Self report on single question:

Taking all things together, how satisfied are you with your life these days? Please answer with the help of this scale. For instance, when you are totally satisfied with your life, please tick '10'. When you are totally unsatisfied with your life, please tick '0'. You may use all values in between to indicate that you are neither totally satisfied nor totally unsatisfied."
10 totally satisfied
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0  totally unsatisfied
Classification:
O-SLW-c-sq-n-11-d

Correlational Findings

Author's label Subject Description Finding Income Earlier level of income
Household income
Household size Change in family of origin Years of education Change in education Marital status Married (vs never married) Job Change in employment
Became unemployed
Became self-employed
Had in-job training
Home owner House owned or rented
Change from rent to owner