The correct prediction of how alternative states of the world affect our lives is a cornerstone of economics. We study how accurate people are in predicting their future well-being after facing major life events. Based on individual panel data, we compare people’s life satisfaction forecasts reported in the first interview after a major life event with their actual evaluations five years later on. This ...
Successful assimilation of immigrants into their host country improves immigrants' labor market outcomes and consequently benefits the host country. I use marriage between an immigrant man and a German woman (intermarriage) as a measure of assimilation. Married immigrant men might benefit even more from intermarriage than either single men or those married to other immigrants through legal benefits, ...
We examine the relationship between income and health with the purpose of establishing the extent to which the distribution of health in a population contributes to income inequality and is itself a product of that inequality. The evidence supports a significant and substantial impact of ill-health on income mainly operating through employment, although it is difficult to gauge the magnitude of the ...