The age U-shape in Europe: the protective role of partnership

The age U-shape in Europe: the protective role of partnership

Blog Article

In this study, we ask whether the U-shaped relationship between life satisfactionand age is flatter for individuals who are partnered.An analysis of cross-sectionalEU-SILC data indicates that the decline in life satisfaction from the teens to thefifties is almost four times larger for non-partnered than for partnered individuals,whose life satisfaction Kimberwick essentially follows a slight downward trajectory with age.However, the same analysis applied to three panel datasets (BHPS, SOEP andHILDA) reveals a U-shape for both groups, albeit Phone Double Adaptor somewhat flatter for the partneredthan for the non-partnered individuals.We suggest that the difference between thecross-sectional and the panel results reflects compositional effects: i.

e., there isa significant shift of the relatively dissatisfied out of marriage in mid-life.Thesecompositional effects tend to flatten the U-shape in age for the partnered individualsin the cross-sectional data.