Abstract
We use 28 years of Argentina’s life satisfaction (LS) and happiness (HA) data to test the Easterlin Paradox and find out the actual determinants of happiness. Argentineans are happier now than in 1984, and the City of Buenos Aires leads in present rankings of happiness in Argentina. In the cross-section analysis, LS correlates with the satisfaction about the economic situation of households, but the satisfaction with family and time spent with loved ones have a higher explanatory power. When it comes to HA, high social class members do not always buy a ticket, but low class makes people sadder. Nontraditional variables – pills for mental stress and sex – were also studied.
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Notes
- 1.
In 1984 survey, the only variable with information about education is a question asking respondents the year they left school. Fortunately, that variable highly correlates with the level of education in the other waves, allowing us to estimate education level based on that.
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Schiaffino, P., Tetaz, M. (2016). Income, Sex, Pills and Relationships: An Empirical Study for Argentina. In: Rojas, M. (eds) Handbook of Happiness Research in Latin America. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7203-7_16
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