The persistence of subjective well-being

Résumé éditeur

This paper disentangles the roles played by state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity inself-assessed happiness. It estimates a dynamic nonlinear model of subjective well-being onlongitudinal data, primarily from France, but also from Australia, Germany, and the UK. Lifesatisfaction is persistent over time, which static models ignore. This persistence is heterogeneousacross individuals: it concerns mostly those already happy with their lives while, in contrast,unhappiness seems more transitory. The impact of initial conditions is large in comparison withusual determinants of happiness, or with state dependence.