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An adequate theory of happiness or subjective well-being (SWB) needs to link at least three sets of variables: stable person characteristics (including personality traits), life events and measures of well-being (life satisfaction, positive affects) and ill-being (anxiety, depression, negative affects). It also needs to be based on long term data in order to account for long term change in SWB. By ...
In:
Schmollers Jahrbuch (Proceedings of the 7th International Socio-Economic Panel User Conference (SOEP 2006), ed. by Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada; Grabka, Markus M. and Kroh, Martin)
127 (2007), 1, 85-94
| Bruce Headey
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Set-point theory has dominated the field of subjective well-being (SWB). It has served as a classic Kuhn research paradigm, being extended and refined for thirty years to take in new results. The central plank of the theory is that adult set-points do not change, except just temporarily in the face of major life events. There was always some ‘discordant data’, including evidence that some events are ...
Berlin:
DIW Berlin,
2007,
(SOEPpapers 55)
| Bruce Headey
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In:
Bruce Headey, Elke Holst ,
SOEP Wave Report 1-2008. A Quarter Century of Change: Results from the German Socio-Economic Panel
Berlin: DIW Berlin
69-74
| Bruce Headey
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In:
Social Indicators Research
86 (2008), 2, 213-231
| Bruce Headey
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In:
Bruce Headey, Elke Holst ,
SOEP Wave Report 1-2008. A Quarter Century of Change: Results from the German Socio-Economic Panel
Berlin: DIW Berlin
87-91
| Bruce Headey
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In:
Social Indicators Research
85 (2008), 4, 389-403
| Bruce Headey
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For some years now the German Government has been imposing increasingly strict job search requirements on unemployed people. One aim of current policy is to ensure that, if citizens accept unemployment benefits, they must actively search for work. Clearly, case managers try to match jobs to the qualifications of their clients, but it is generally required that individuals must take any job they are ...
In:
Weekly Report
5 (2009), 11, 75-80
| Bruce Headey
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Influential economists, like Bruno S. Frey and Richard Layard, are advocating that the standard approach in economics of inferring utility from changes in consumption and leisure should be augmented or replaced by use of subjective measures. But psychologists claim that adult life satisfaction (or happiness) is more or less fixed; it has a "set-point" which is largely determined by genetic ...
In:
Weekly Report
5 (2009), 4, 26-30
| Bruce Headey
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Set-point theory is the main research paradigm in the field of subjective well-being (SWB). It has been extended and refined for 30 years to take in new results. The central plank of the theory is that adult set-points do not change, except temporarily in the face of major life events. There was always some 'discordant data', including evidence that some events are so tragic (e.g. the death ...
In:
Social Indicators Research
97 (2010), 1, 7-21
| Bruce Headey
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A crucial debate in policy-making as well as academic circles is whether there is a trade-off between economic efficiency and the size/generosity of the welfare state. One way to contribute to this debate is to compare the performance of ‘best cases’ of different types of state. Arguably, in the decade 1985-94, the US, West Germany and the Netherlands were ‘best cases’ - best economic performers - ...
In:
Social Indicators Research
50 (2000), 2, 115-157
| Bruce Headey, et al.