Children, Unhappiness and Family Finances: Evidence from One Million Europeans / David G. Blanchflower, Andrew E. Clark.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blanchflower, David G.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Clark, Andrew E.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w25597.

NBER working paper series no. w25597

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Children, Unhappiness and Family Finances

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2019.

Summary:

The common finding of a zero or negative correlation between the presence of children and parental well-being continues to generate research interest. We here consider over one million observations on Europeans from ten years of Eurobarometer surveys, and in the first instance replicate this negative finding, both in the overall data and then for most different marital statuses. Children are expensive, and controlling for financial difficulties turns almost all of our estimated child coefficients positive. We argue that financial difficulties explain the pattern of existing results by parental education and income, and country income and social support. Marital status matters. Kids do not raise happiness for singles, the divorced, separated or widowed. Last, we underline that all children are not the same, with step-children commonly having a more negative correlation than children from the current relationship.

Notes:

Print version record

February 2019.