1. Subjective well-being and life events Tineke de Jonge New Directions in Welfare Congress, Paris, 7 July 2011

2. Short history measurement SWB in the Netherlands First Quality of Life Survey: 1974 Domain specific questions  How satisfied are you with your life?  Do you consider yourself happy? Two general subjective questions:  How satisfied are you with your life?  Do you consider yourself happy?

3. Short history measurement SWB in the Netherlands How satisfied are you with your life? Extraordinarily satisfied Very satisfied Satisfied Fairly satisfied Not very satisfied Do you consider yourself happy? Very happy Happy Neither happy nor unhappy Not very happy Unhappy

4. Theories on well-being Standard assumption in economics:  Higher income  higher level of well-being  SWB should go up or down with income rise or fall Adaptation based theories:  Major life events affect subjective well-being  SWB returns to normal after a period of adaptation

5. Social Statistical Database (SSD) SSD Civil register Labour force survey EU-SILC Income register Employment register Unemployment register

6. Dataset for analyses Pooled survey data 2001 - 2008 59,000 respondents of 20 years and older Enriched with data Social Statistical Database  Income shocks  Life events

7. Higher income comes with greater happiness Income shocks Data for analyses Yearly disposable household income ‘03-’08 from SSD Price level 2008 36,000 respondents

8. Income shocks Income class Size of income shock

9. The effect of income shocks on SWB Income shock present year or year before % happy people% satisfied people

10. Life events from SSD Change in marital status Marrying Divorcing Being widowed Change in socio-economic status Starting to work Becoming dependent on benefits (unemployment/disability) Becoming a pensioner Adaptation to changed circumstances

11. Number of life events in SSD

12. Share of happy people after life event Years past since life event

13. A change in marital status and SWB Years before life-eventYears after life-event Life event

14. A change in marital status and SWB Years before life-eventYears after life-event Life event

15. A change in socio-economic status and SWB Years before life-eventYears after life-event Life event

16. A change in socio-economic status and SWB Years before life-eventYears after life-event Life event

17. Conclusions People adapt to circumstances Our data contain meaningful information Happiness and satisfaction are assessed differently People react differently to various types of life events Changes in SWB are more likely due to life events than to income shocks Thank you for your attention!