Ryff, C. D., &Singer, B. (1998). The contours of positive human health. Psychological inquiry, 9(1), 1-28.

The primary objectives of this article are (a) to put forth an explicit operational formulation of positive human health that goes beyond prevailing “absence of illness” criteria; (b) to clarify that positive human health does not derive from extant medical considerations, which are not about wellness, but necessarily require a base in philosophical accounts of …

Blanchflower, D. G., &Oswald, A. J. (1998). What makes an entrepreneur?. Journal of labor Economics, 16(1), 26-60.

This article uses various micro data sets to study entrepreneurship. Consistent with the existence of capital constraints on potential entrepreneurs, the estimates imply that the probability of self‐employment depends positively upon whether the individual ever received an inheritance or gift. When directly questioned in interview surveys, potential entrepreneurs say that raising capital is their principal …

Blanchflower, D. G. (2000). Self-employment in OECD countries. Labour economics, 7(5), 471-505.

The paper examines the role and influence of self-employment across the OECD. The overall trend in self-employment, at the economy level in the years since 1966, has been down in most countries. The main exceptions to this are Portugal, New Zealand and the United Kingdom where the trend has been upward. For most countries there …

Kraft, K. (2001). Unemployment and the separation of married couples. Kyklos, 54(1), 67-88.

This article analyzes whether unemployment has an effect on the splitting of a marital relationship. The study uses 40 000 observations on unemployment spells and marital status during the period from 1987 to 1996. Random effects probit and conditional likelihood logit models for panel data are applied. Using several control variables, it was confirmed that …

Lucas, R. E., Clark, A. E., Georgellis, Y., &Diener, E. (2004). Unemployment alters the set point for life satisfaction. Psychological science, 15(1), 8-13.

According to set-point theories of subjective well-being, people react to events but then return to baseline levels of happiness and satisfaction over time. We tested this idea by examining reaction and adaptation to unemployment in a 15-year longitudinal study of more than 24,000 individuals living in Germany. In accordance with set-point theories, individuals reacted strongly …

Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., &Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change. Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 111-131.

The pursuit of happiness is an important goal for many people. However, surprisingly little scientific research has focused on the question of how happiness can be increased and then sustained, probably because of pessimism engendered by the concepts of genetic determinism and hedonic adaptation. Nevertheless, emerging sources of optimism exist regarding the possibility of permanent …

Helliwell, J. F., &Huang, H. (2008). How& #39;s your government? International evidence linking good government and well-being.British Journal of Political Science, 38(4), 595-619.

This article employs World Values Survey measures of life satisfaction as though they were direct measures of utility, and uses them to evaluate alternative features and forms of government in large international samples. Life satisfaction is found to be more closely linked to several World Bank measures of the quality of government than to real …

Hudson, J. (2006). Institutional trust and subjective well‐being across the EU. Kyklos, 59(1), 43-62.

This paper analyzes the impact of institutions upon happiness through their intermediary impact upon individual trust. The empirical work is based on Eurobarometer data covering the 15 countries of the EU prior to its expansion in 2004. With respect to trust, we present evidence that, although it is endogenous with respect to the performance of …

Ruhm, C. J. (2000). Are recessions good for your health?. The Quarterly journal of economics, 115(2), 617-650.

This study investigates the relationship between economic conditions and health. Total mortality and eight of the ten sources of fatalities examined are shown to exhibit a procyclical fluctuation, with suicides representing an important exception. The variations are largest for those causes and age groups where behavioral responses are most plausible, and there is some evidence …

Wolfers, J. (2003). Is business cycle volatility costly? Evidence from surveys of subjective well‐being. International finance, 6(1), 1-26.

This paper analyses the effects of business cycle volatility on measures of subjective well‐being, including self‐reported happiness and life satisfaction. I find robust evidence that high inflation and, to a greater extent, unemployment lower perceived well‐being. Greater macroeconomic volatility also undermines well‐being. These effects are moderate but important: eliminating unemployment volatility would raise well‐being by …