TY  - JOUR
IS  - 2
SP  - 199
UR  - http://doi.org/10.1007/s12232-010-0098-1
AV  - none
KW  - Happiness; Social capital; Economic growth; Relational goods; Intrinsic motivations; Subjective well-being; Easterlin paradox; Life satisfaction; Sociability
A1  - Bartolini, Stefano
A1  - Bilancini, Ennio
TI  - If not only GDP, what else? Using relational goods to predict the trends of subjective well-being
SN  - 1865-1704
EP  - 213
PB  - Springer
ID  - eprints3885
Y1  - 2010///
JF  - International Review of Economics
VL  - 57
N2  - In the last decade, a lively interdisciplinary discussion has grown around the evidence that, in the long-run, people?s subjective well-being is not significantly correlated with income growth. In other words, GDP growth does not predict the long run growth of subjective well-being. In this paper, we argue that there exists a different predictor of subjective well-being that works pretty well: sociability, i.e. the quality and quantity of social relationships (also referred to as relational goods). More precisely, we illustrate the role of sociability as a predictor of well-being, presenting the available evidence at both the within-country and the worldwide level. In particular, we discuss recent evidence from US cross-sectional data (General Social Survey, 1975?2004), cross-country time series (World Value Survey 1980?2005), and German panel data (German Socio-Economic Panel, 1996?2007). We conclude by indicating the most relevant open issues and suggesting future lines of research.
ER  -