Findings on happiness in DiTella et al. (2007): study DE 1984

Publication
Author(s)DiTella, R.; Haisken-DeNew, J.P.; MacCulloch, R.J.
TitleHappiness Adaptation to Income and to Status in an Individual Panel.
SourceNBER Working Paper 13159, 2007, Cambridge, USA
URLhttp://www.nber.org/papers/w13159
Investigation
Public18+ aged general public, (West-)Germany, followed 16 years 1984-2000
Last assesment2000
Survey nameDE-SOEP combined waves
 SOEP 1984-2000
SampleProbability multi-stage cluster sample
Respondents N =7812
Non ResponseNot available
AssesmentInterview: face-to-face
Happiness measure(s) used
Full textSelfreport 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
ClassificationO-SLW-c-sq-n-11-d
Page in publication9
Finding used in
nation ranks		Yes
 On original range 0 - 10On range 0 - 10
Mean7.15
Standard deviation1.75

Correlational findings

Author's label Our subject description
Average income in nationshow  Average income in nation
Average income in nationshow  Trend average happiness in cities/regions, also classified as above ↑
Average income in nationshow  Trend happiness in Germany, also classified as above ↑
Incomeshow  Average income in nation
Incomeshow  Change in income level, also classified as above ↑
Incomeshow  Earlier level of income, also classified as above ↑
Incomeshow  Household income , also classified as above ↑
Statusshow  'Objective' socio-economic status
Statusshow  Change in socio-economic status, also classified as above ↑
Statusshow  Earlier socio-economic status, also classified as above ↑