A new paper published ONLINE FIRST with free OPEN ACCESS shows that the life satisfaction of elderly people in West Germany declined; they are experiencing their remaining lifetime in states of dissatisfaction.

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Increasing longevity and life satisfaction: Is there a catch to living longer?

by Janina Nemitz

Published ONLINE FIRST 2021: Journal of Population Economics
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Author Abstract: Human longevity is rising rapidly all over the world, but are longer lives more satisfied lives? This study suggests that the answer might be no. Despite a substantial increase in months of satisfying life, people’s overall life satisfaction declined between 1985 and 2011 in West Germany due to substantial losses of life satisfaction in old age. When compared to 1985, in 2011, elderly West Germans were, on average, much less satisfied throughout their last five years of life. Moreover, they spent a larger proportion of their remaining lifetime in states of dissatisfaction, on average. Two important mechanisms that contributed to this satisfaction decline were health and social isolation. Using a broad variety of sensitivity tests, I show that these results are robust to a large set of alternative explanations.

Journal of Population Economics
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LEAD ARTICLE OF ISSUE 2, 2021:
Measuring gender attitudes using list experiments
by M. Niaz Asadullah, Elisabetta De Cao, Fathema Zhura Khatoon, and Zahra Siddique
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