This is a response to a recently published comment by David G. Blanchflower (2020a) regarding the earlier paper entitled “Experienced Life Cycle Satisfaction in Europe” (Morgan and O’Connor, 2017), hereafter MO. Blanchflower critiques MO, obtaining a distinct pattern of life satisfaction over the life cycle using a different sample. We take this distinction as further supporting the main conclusion in MO, that more rigor should be applied in assessing the relation between life satisfaction and age, especially in choosing controls and by using non-parametric methods. Our response speaks to the broader literature. Many previous studies limit the number of possible shapes by imposing a quadratic relation, or describe the relation in quadratic terms. MO describes the pattern between life satisfaction and age in more detail and offers evidence, immune to Blanchflower’s critique, that the U-shape relation is in fact not everywhere.
Does the U-shape Pattern in Life Cycle Satisfaction Obscure Reality? A Response to Blanchflower
This comment is based on a draft version of Blanchflower (2020a); the authors did not see the accepted version. The authors would like to thank Richard Easterlin and Carol Graham for helpful comments. Morgan acknowledges financial support from Minerva. O’Connor acknowledge financial support of the Observatoire de la Compétitivité, Ministère de l’Economie, DG Compétitivité, Luxembourg, and STATEC. Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect those of Minerva, STATEC, or funding partners. Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Morgan R, O’Connor KJ (2020), "Does the U-shape Pattern in Life Cycle Satisfaction Obscure Reality? A Response to Blanchflower". Review of Behavioral Economics, Vol. 7 No. 2 pp. 201–206, doi: https://doi.org/10.1561/105.00000122
Download citation file:
Sign in
ICE Member Sign In
Log inPurchased this content as a guest? Enter your email address to restore access.
