A recent paper by Bond & Lang (2018) forcefully argues that the results of most happiness research are reversible. If they are right, empirical happiness research is in crisis. In this paper, we make four related contributions. First, we show that B&L’s reversal conditions imply that respondents answer happiness questions in a manner that is implausible and which is contradicted by previous empirical research. Second, we show that reversals are driven by effect heterogeneities across the distribution of reported happiness. Third, we give a simple procedure by which such heterogeneities can be detected and provide conditions under which OLS coefficients can be reversed by appropriately relabeling response categories. These conditions turn out to be similar to those given by Schröder & Yitzhaki (2017). Fourth, using GSOEP data, we empirically assess the plausibility of Bond & Lang’s reversal conditions and check whether coefficients from OLS and fixed-effects models can be reversed. Our analysis focuses on household income, unemployment, childbirth, sickness, and marriage. Bond & Lang’s reversal conditions turn out to be implausible for all these variables. Moreover, when using a full set of controls, no reversals of coefficients of the OLS and FE models are possible.
Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.