Life satisfaction in Australia: Evidence from ten years of the HILDA survey

Social Indicators Research

Volumn 115, Issue 2, 2014, Pages 691-714

  Ambrey, Christopher L ^a   Fleming, Christopher M ^a  

^a GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

Dissatisfaction; Happiness; Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA); Inequality; Life satisfaction

Indexed keywords

HOUSEHOLD INCOME; LABOR; QUALITY OF LIFE; SOCIOECONOMIC INDICATOR;

AUSTRALIA;

EID: 84896316462     PISSN: 03038300     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s11205-012-0228-0     Document Type: Article

References (76)

1. Alesina, A., Di Tella, R., & MacCulloch, R. (2004). Inequality and happiness: Are Europeans and Americans different? Journal of Public Economics, 88(9-10), 2009-2042.
2. Ambrey, C., & Fleming, C. (2011). Valuing scenic amenity using life satisfaction data. Ecological Economics, 72(1), 106-115.
3. Ambrey, C., & Fleming, C. (in press). Valuing ecosystem diversity in South East Queensland: A life satisfaction approach. Social Indicators Research, doi:10.1007/s11205-012-0208-4.
4. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2011a). Glossary of statistical geography terminology, 2011, Catalogue No. 1217.0.55.001. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/1217.0.55.001. Accessed 12 April 2012.
5. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2011b). Household income and income distribution, Catalogue No. 6523.0. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6523.0. Accessed 1 March 2012.
6. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2011c). Measures of Australia's progress: Summary indicators 2011, Catalogue No. 1370.0.55.001. http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mf/1370.0.55.001. Accessed 17 July 2012.
7. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2012). 2011 Census of population and housing: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (indigenous) profile, Catalogue No. 2002.0. http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/communityprofile/0. Accessed 9 August 2012.
8. Baron, J., & Cobb-Clark, D. (2010). Occupational segregation and the gender wage gap in private- and public-sector employment: A distributional analysis. Economic Record, 86(273), 227-246.
9. Blanchflower, D., & Oswald, A. (2004). Well-being over time in Britain and the USA. Journal of Public Economics, 88(7-8), 1359-1386.
10. Blanchflower, D., & Oswald, A. (2005). Happiness and the Human Development Index: The paradox of Australia. The Australian Economic Review, 38(3), 307-318.
11. Boes, S., & Winkelmann, R. (2010). The effect of income on general life satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Social Indicators Research, 95(1), 111-128.
12. Brereton, F., Clinch, J. P., & Ferreira, S. (2008). Happiness, geography and the environment. Ecological Economics, 65(2), 386-396.
13. Breusch, T., & Pagan, A. (1979). A simple test for heteroscedasticity and random coefficient variation. Econometrica, 47(5), 1287-1294.
14. Clark, A., Frijters, P., & Shields, M. (2008). Relative income, happiness, and utility: An explanation for the Easterlin paradox and other puzzles. Journal of Economic Literature, 46(1), 95-144.
15. Cobb-Clark, D., & Schurer, S. (2012). The stability of big-five personality traits. Economic Letters, 115(1), 11-15.
16. Delhey, J., & Kohler, U. (2011). Is happiness inequality immune to income inequality? New evidence through instrument-effect-corrected standard deviations. Social Science Research, 40(3), 742-756.
17. Delhey, J., & Kohler, U. (2012). Happiness inequality: Adding meaning to numbers-A reply to Veenhoven and Kalmijn. Social Science Research, 41(3), 731-734.
18. DeNeve, K., & Cooper, H. (1998). The happy personality: A meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 197-229.
19. Di Tella, R., MacCulloch, R., & Oswald, A. (2001). Preferences over inflation and unemployment: Evidence from surveys of happiness. American Economic Review, 91(1), 335-341.
20. Di Tella, R., MacCulloch, R., & Oswald, A. (2003). The macroeconomics of happiness. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 85(4), 809-827.
21. Dworkin, R. (1981). What is equality? Part 2: Equality of resources. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 10(4), 283-345.
22. Easterlin, R. (1974). Does economic growth improve the human lot? Some empirical evidence. In P. David & M. Redler (Eds.), Nations and households in economic growth: Essays in honor of Moses Abramovitz (pp. 89-125). New York: Academic Press.
23. Easterlin, R. (1995). Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all? Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 27(1), 35-47.
24. Easterlin, R. (2010). Well-being, front and center: A note on the Sarkozy report. Population and Development Review, 36(1), 119-124.
25. Ferrante, F. (2009). Education, aspirations and life satisfaction. Kyklos, 62(4), 542-562.
26. Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A. (2005). Income and well-being: An empirical analysis of the comparison income effect. Journal of Public Economics, 89(5-6), 997-1019.
27. Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A., & Frijters, P. (2004). How important is methodology for the estimates of the determinants of happiness? Economic Journal, 114(497), 641-659.
28. Frey, B., & Stutzer, A. (2002). What can economists learn from happiness research? Journal of Economic Literature, 40(2), 402-435.
29. Frijters, P., Haisken-DeNew, J., & Shields, M. (2004). Money does matter! Evidence from increasing real income and life satisfaction in East Germany following reunification. American Economic Review, 94(3), 730-740.
30. Gandelman, N., & Porzecanski, R. (in press). Happiness inequality: How much is reasonable? Social Indicators Research. doi:10.1007/s11205-011-9929-z.
31. Geishecker, I., & Riedl, M. (2010). Ordered response models and non-random personalty traits: Monte Carlo simulations and a practical guide. Germany: Centre for European Governance and Economic Development Research.
32. Hamilton, C., Downie, C., & Lu, Y.-H. (2008). The state of the Australian middle class. Australasian Accounting Business and Finance Journal, 2(3), 1-25.
33. Headey, B., Muffels, R., & Wagner, G. (in press). Choices which change life satisfaction: Similar results for Australia, Britain and Germany. Social Indicators Research. doi:10.1007/s11205-012-0079-8.
34. Helliwell, J. (2003). How's life? Combining individual and national variables to explain subjective wellbeing. Economic Modelling, 20(2), 331-360.
35. Hill, R. C., Griffiths, W., & Lim, G. (2008). Principles of Econometrics (3rd ed.). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
36. Kahneman, D., & Krueger, A. (2006). Developments in the measurement of subjective well-being. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(1), 3-24.
37. Kalmijn, W. (2012). Happiness is not normally distributed: A comment to Delhey and Kohler. Social Science Research, 41(1), 199-202.
38. Kalmijn, W., & Veenhoven, R. (2005). Measuring inequality of happiness in nations: In search for proper statistics. Journal of Happiness Studies, 6(4), 357-396.
39. Kroll, C. (2011). Different things make different people happy: Examining social capital and subjective well-being by gender and parental status. Social Indicators Research, 104(1), 157-177.
40. Leigh, A. (2010). Disconnected. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.
41. Leigh, A., & Wolfers, J. (2006). Happiness and the Human Development Index: Australia is not a paradox. The Australian Economic Review, 39(2), 176-184.
42. MacKerron, G. (2012). Happiness economics from 35 000 feet. Journal of Economic Surveys, 26(4), 705-735.
43. Margolis, R., & Myrskylä, M. (2011). A global perspective on happiness and fertility. Population and Development Review, 37(1), 29-56.
44. Oswald, A. (1997). Happiness and economic performance. Economic Journal, 107(445), 1815-1831.
45. Ott, J. (2010). Greater happiness for a greater number: Some non-controversial options for governments. Journal of Happiness Studies, 11, 631-647.
46. Ott, J. (2011). Government and happiness in 130 nations: Good governance fosters higher level and more equality of happiness. Social Indicators Research, 102(1), 3-22.
47. Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: Oxford University Press.
48. Sarason, I., Levine, H., Basham, R., & Sarason, B. (1983). Assessing social support: The Social Support
49. Questionnaire. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(1), 127-139.
50. Saucier, G. (1994). Mini-markers: A brief version of Goldberg's unipolar Big-Five markers. Journal of Personality Assessment, 63(3), 506-516.
51. Schubert, C. (2012). Pursuing happiness. Kyklos, 65(2), 245-261.
52. Schwartz, B., Ward, A., Monterosso, J., Lyubomirsky, S., White, K., & Lehman, D. (2002). Maximizing versus satisficing: Happiness is a matter of choice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(5), 1178-1197.
53. Senik, C. (2009). Income distribution and subjective happiness: A survey. OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 96. Paris.
54. Shields, M., Price, S., & Wooden, M. (2009). Life satisfaction and the economic and social characteristics of neighbourhoods. Journal of Population Economics, 22(2), 421-443.
55. Skinner, N., Hutchinson, C., & Pocock, B. (2012). The big squeeze: Work, home and care in 2012. Adelaide: Centre for Work?Life.
56. Smyth, R., Mishra, V., & Qian, X. (2008). The environment and well-being in urban China. Ecological Economics, 68(1-2), 547-555.
57. Sortino, F. (2010). The sortino framework for constructing portfolios: Focusing on desired target return to optimize upside potential relative to downside risk. Boston: Elsevier.
58. Stevenson, B., & Wolfers, J. (2008). Happiness inequality in the United States. Journal of Legal Studies, 37(s2), s33-s79.
59. Stevenson, B., & Wolfers, J. (2009). The paradox of declining female happiness. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 1(2), 190-225.
60. Stiglitz, J., Sen, A., & Fitoussi, J.-P. (2009). Report by the commission on the measurement of economic performance and social progress. Paris.
61. The World Bank. (2012). Data. Available: http://data.worldbank.org/?display=default. http://data.worldbank.org/?display=default. Accessed 2 August 2012.
62. Tiebout, C. (1956). A pure theory of local expenditures. Journal of Political Economy, 64(5), 416-424.
63. United Nations Development Programme. (2010). Human development report 2010: The Real Wealth of Nations (Pathways to Human Development). New York.
64. van Egmond, M., Baxter, J., Buchler, S., & Western, M. (2010). A stalled revolution? Gender role attitudes in Australia, 1986-2005. Journal of Population Research, 27(3), 147-168.
65. van Praag, B., Frijters, P., & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A. (2003). The anatomy of subjective well-being. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 51(1), 29-49.
66. Veenhoven, R. (1996). Developments in satisfaction research. Social Indicators Research, 37(1), 1-46.
67. Veenhoven, R. (2005). Return of inequality in modern society? Test by dispersion of life-satisfaction across time and nations. Journal of Happiness Studies, 6(4), 457-487.
68. Veenhoven, R. (2012). The medicine is worse than the disease: Comment on Delhey and Kohler's proposal to measure inequality in happiness using 'instrument-effect-corrected' standard deviation. Social Science Research, 41(1), 203-205.
69. Watson, N., & Wooden, M. (2002). The household, income and labour dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey: Wave 1 survey methodology. HILDA Project Technical Paper Series No. 1/02. Melbourne: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.
70. Watson, N., & Wooden, M. (2004a). Assessing the quality of the HILDA survey wave 2 data. HILDA Project Technical Paper Series No. 5/04. Melbourne: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.
71. Watson, N., & Wooden, M. (2004b). Sample attrition in the HILDA survey. Australian Journal of Labour Economics, 7(2), 293-308.
72. Watson, N., & Wooden, M. (2012). The HILDA survey: A case study in the design and development of a successful household panel study. Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 3(3), 369-381.
73. Wellman, B., & Wortley, S. (1990). Different strokes from different folks: Community ties and social support. American Journal of Sociology, 96(3), 558-588.
74. Welsch, H. (2007). Macroeconomics and life satisfaction: Revisiting the "Misery Index". Journal of Applied Economics, 10(2), 237-251.
75. Winkelmann, R. (2009). Unemployment, social capital, and subjective well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 10(4), 421-430.
76. World Bank (2012). Worldwide Governance Indicators. http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.asp. Accessed 19 December 2012.