Women and happiness

Matteucci, Nicola and Vieira Lima, Sabrina (2014): Women and happiness.

Abstract

We survey the Happiness and Economics field to systematize the explanations of the happiness gender gap, whose puzzling evidence stands out both synchronically and diachronically. Further, this analysis is completed by an interdisciplinary review of competing perspectives, mostly from psychology and medical sciences. Beside disciplinary specificities and differences, results and explanations also reveal some intriguing commonalities. Psychology and medical sciences (also assisted by cutting edge medical technologies) lead in the static (time-invariant) explanation of happiness and its gender gap, while economic works are better equipped to detect external factors and the role of time-varying objective life conditions. In particular, the Happiness and Economics field has provided original evidence on the country and time variant nature of the happiness gender gap. Finally, different disciplines uncovered the common stylized fact that women are increasingly worse off during their life, by aging, with respect to men: its full explanation still remains at the center of the research agenda.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Happiness, Subjective Well-Being, Psycological Well-Being, Gender gap, Determinants, Interdisciplinary review
• Subjects: A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics > A12 - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines; D - Microeconomics > D1 - Household Behavior and Family Economics > D10 - General; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty > I31 - General Welfare, Well-Being; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J13 - Fertility ; Family Planning ; Child Care ; Children ; Youth; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J16 - Economics of Gender ; Non-labor Discrimination

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