Self-Reported Satisfaction and the Economic Crisis of 2007–2010: Or How People in the UK and Germany Perceive a Severe Cyclical Downturn

Socio-economic stratification of life satisfaction in Ireland during an economic recession: A repeated cross-sectional study using the European Social Survey

“…Studies examining the implications of short-term economic changes have found that the aggregate life satisfaction tend to decrease during economic crisis (e.g. Helliwell, Huang, & Wang, 2014;Mertens & Beblo, 2016;OECD, 2013). Moreover, there is evidence that this effects runs mainly through economic mechanisms such as increases in the level of unemployment (Bell & Blanchflower, 2010;Di Tella, MacCulloch, & Oswald, 2003;Mertens & Beblo, 2016) and increases in subjective economic hardship (Gudmundsdottir, 2013).…”

“…Studies have also examined a level of unemployment as a contextual measure. It has been suggested that the national unemployment rate has a negative contextual effect on wellbeing as it reflects general uncertainly and the level of social tensions in a society (Mertens & Beblo, 2016). Empirical analyses have found diverse results for this claim such as Alesina et al (2004) who found negative effects for the United States but not for a set of European countries.…”

“…One field of SWB research is based on country-level analyses on the relationship between life satisfaction and macroeconomic indicators, such as Gross Domestic Product (Easterlin, 1974;Easterlin et al, 2010;Frank, 2009;Helliwell, Layard, & Sachs, 2012;Stevenson & Wolfers, 2008). A related and growing research perspective has focused on studying the effects of short-term macroeconomic changes, such as impact of economic recession on a level of subjective wellbeing (Bell & Blanchflower, 2010;Bjørnskov, 2014;Blanchflower & Oswald, 2004;Deaton, 2011;Guardiola, Picazo-Tadeo, & Rojas, 2015;Gudmundsdottir, 2013;Helliwell, Huang, & Wang, 2014;Mertens & Beblo, 2016;OECD, 2013). Both of these lines of enquiry have focused upon aggregates of populations as a whole, while sub-group differences, including socio-economic stratification, have received less attention.…”

Are There Business Cycles “beyond GDP”? Alternative Measures to GDP at Business Cycle Frequencies

“…(Deaton (2012): abstract). In a similar vein, Mertens and Beblo (2011) discuss the development of subjective well-being in Germany and the UK during and after the crisis.…”

“…These results are also true for the other indicators with only the suicide rate of younger males experiencing a significant positive link with the unemployment rate. While Deaton (2012) and Mertens and Beblo (2011) tend to view changes in happiness as less pronounced than downswings of real GDP, Wolfers (2003) by contrast, uses happiness data to assess the welfare losses caused by business cycles. He finds a relatively strong cycle in happiness.…”