Meier, S., &Stutzer, A. (2008). Is volunteering rewarding in itself?. Economica, 75(297), 39-59.

Volunteering constitutes one of the most important pro‐social activities. Following Aristotle, helping others is the way to higher individual wellbeing. This view contrasts with the selfish utility maximizer, who avoids helping others. The two rival views are studied empirically. We find robust evidence that volunteers are more satisfied with their life than non‐volunteers. The issue of causality is studied from the basis of the collapse of East Germany and its infrastructure of volunteering. People who lost their opportunities for volunteering are compared with people who experienced no change in their volunteer status.

 

 

Meier, S., &Stutzer, A. (2008). Is volunteering rewarding in itself?. Economica, 75(297), 39-59.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0335.2007.00597.x

 

 

Stutzer, A., &Frey, B. S. (2006). Does marriage make people happy, or do happy people get married?. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 35(2), 326-347.

This paper analyzes the causal relationships between marriage and subjective well-being in a longitudinal data set spanning 17 years. We find evidence that happier singles opt more likely for marriage and that there are large differences in the benefits from marriage between couples. Potential, as well as actual, division of labor seems to contribute to spouses’ well-being, especially for women and when there is a young family to raise. In contrast, large differences in the partners’ educational level have a negative effect on experienced life satisfaction.

 

 

Stutzer, A., &Frey, B. S. (2006). Does marriage make people happy, or do happy people get married?. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 35(2), 326-347.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2005.11.043

 

 

Chun, H., &Lee, I. (2001). Why do married men earn more: Productivity or marriage selection?. Economic Inquiry, 39(2), 307-319.

Using data from the Current Population Survey March Supplement 1999, this study examines why married men earn more than men who have never married. We find that the marriage wage premium cannot be attributed to the unobservable higher earnings capability of married men. Instead, wage gains from marriage are explained by the degree of specialization within the household. Our findings cast doubt on the argument that the selection of high‐ability men into marriage is the cause of the marriage wage premium.

 

 

Chun, H., &Lee, I. (2001). Why do married men earn more: Productivity or marriage selection?. Economic Inquiry, 39(2), 307-319.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7295.2001.tb00068.x

 

 

Hundley, G. (2001). Why and when are the self‐employed more satisfied with their work?. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 40(2), 293-316.

Analysis confirms that the self‐employed are more satisfied with their jobs because their work provides more autonomy, flexibility, and skill utilization and greater job security. These underlying mechanisms have been stable over the last 30 years and are not due simply to personality differences. The self‐employed job satisfaction advantage is relatively small or nonexistent among managers and members of the established professions—occupations where organizational workers have relatively high autonomy and skill utilization.

 

 

Hundley, G. (2001). Why and when are the self‐employed more satisfied with their work?. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 40(2), 293-316.

https://doi.org/10.1111/0019-8676.00209

 

Clark, A. E. (2001). What really matters in a job? Hedonic measurement using quit data. Labour economics, 8(2), 223-242.

This paper uses labour market spell data from the first seven waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) to model separations and quits. Three main results emerge. First, job satisfaction data are powerful predictors of both separations and quits, even controlling for wages, hours and standard demographic and job variables. Second, the comparison of the power of seven domain job satisfaction measures in a quit equation yields a ranking of job characteristics: job security and pay are the most important, followed by use of initiative, the work itself, and hours of work. This ranking differs markedly across different labour market groups. Last, union job dissatisfaction seems to be real: dissatisfied union members are just as likely to quit as are dissatisfied union non-members. However, union “free-riders” (non-union members at establishments with union recognition) do seem to behave differently from workers at establishments where unions are not recognised.

 

 

 

Clark, A. E. (2001). What really matters in a job? Hedonic measurement using quit data. Labour economics, 8(2), 223-242.

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0927-5371(01)00031-8

 

 

Van Praag, B. M., Frijters, P., &Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A. (2003). The anatomy of subjective well-being. Journal of Economic Behavior &Organization, 51(1), 29-49.

This paper contributes to the literature on subjective well-being (SWB) by taking into account different aspects of life, called domains, such as health, financial situation, job, leisure, housing, and environment. We postulate a two-layer model where individual total SWB depends on the different subjective domain satisfactions. A distinction is made between long-term and short-term effects. The individual domain satisfactions depend on objectively measurable variables, such as income. The model is estimated using a large German panel data set.

 

 

Van Praag, B. M., Frijters, P., &Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A. (2003). The anatomy of subjective well-being. Journal of Economic Behavior &Organization, 51(1), 29-49.

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-2681(02)00140-3

 

 

Meyer, B. D. (1995). Natural and quasi-experiments in economics. Journal of business &economic statistics, 13(2), 151-161.

Using research designs patterned after randomized experiments, many recent economic studies examine outcome measures for treatment groups and comparison groups that are not randomly assigned. By using variation in explanatory variables generated by changes in state laws, government draft mechanisms, or other means, these studies obtain variation that is readily examined and is plausibly exogenous. This article describes the advantages of these studies and suggests how they can be improved. It also provides aids in judging the validity of inferences that they draw. Design complications such as multiple treatment and comparison groups and multiple preintervention or postintervention observations are advocated.

 

 

Meyer, B. D. (1995). Natural and quasi-experiments in economics. Journal of business &economic statistics, 13(2), 151-161.

 

 

Besley, T., &Case, A. (2000). Unnatural experiments? Estimating the incidence of endogenous policies. The Economic Journal, 110(467), 672-694.

There are numerous empirical studies that exploit variation in policies over space and time in the U.S. federal system. If state policy making is purposeful action, responsive to economic and political conditions within the state, then it is necessary to identify and control for the forces that lead to these policy changes. This paper investigates the implications of policy endogeneity for a specific policy context – workers’ compensation benefits. We contrast different methods of estimation and their pros and cons in this context.

 

 

Besley, T., &Case, A. (2000). Unnatural experiments? Estimating the incidence of endogenous policies. The Economic Journal, 110(467), 672-694.

https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0297.00578

 

Blanchflower, D. G., Oswald, A., &Stutzer, A. (2001). Latent entrepreneurship across nations. European Economic Review, 45(4-6), 680-691.

The paper studies latent entrepreneurship across nations. There are three main findings. First, large numbers of people in the industrial countries say they would prefer to be self-employed. Top of the international ranking of entrepreneurial spirit come Poland (with 80% saying so), Portugal and the USA; bottom of the table come Norway (with 27% saying so), Denmark and Russia. Second, for individuals the probability of preferring to be self-employed is strongly decreasing with age, while the probability of being self-employed is strongly increasing with age. Third, we show that self-employed individuals have noticeably higher job satisfaction than the employed, so people’s expressed wish to run their business cannot easily be written off as mistaken. We speculate on why so much entrepreneurial spirit lies dormant.

 

 

Blanchflower, D. G., Oswald, A., &Stutzer, A. (2001). Latent entrepreneurship across nations. European Economic Review, 45(4-6), 680-691.

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0014-2921(01)00137-4