Journal of Wellbeing Economics

Dissatisfaction in midlife is a common phenomenon and has been for at least several decades. Much, however, is still unknown about why. This review briefly summarizes literature which finds midlife lows in survey data before examining the explanations proposed for their existence. The evidence presented is interdisciplinary, often from the field of psychotherapy, which has engaged deeply with the topic. Given that dissatisfaction in midlife can be substantial for some people, efforts to understand the phenomenon and how it might be mitigated seem to be worthwhile. In pursuit of this aim, the article concludes with some research questions which emerge from the preceding discussions and which, if answered, will advance our collective knowledge about this complex and important stage of the lifecycle.

The present study had two primary aims. First, we examined the role of perceived local environmental conditions in the production of subjective well-being. Second, we tested the validity of a city quality-of-life indicators model in a global context. To address these aims, we analyzed data from the 2019 Gallup World Poll, which included 162,740 respondents from 137 countries and provided subjective indicators of urban conditions across a broad international sample. Guided by the concept of personal utility, the model proposed that residents’ perceived quality of life in the city would be positively associated with satisfaction with the city’s conditions and services, including infrastructure, social services, and the physical, economic, and social environment. The model further proposed that perceived city quality of life would mediate the associations between satisfaction with these conditions and services and subjective well-being, indexed by life satisfaction and affective well-being. This mediating process was interpreted through the lens of bottom-up spillover theory. Results from multilevel modeling supported these hypotheses. In particular, satisfaction with local economic, social, and environmental conditions emerged as a coherent domain that was associated with subjective well-being through perceived city quality of life. We discuss the policy implications of these findings, along with the study’s limitations and directions for future research.

Over the past couple of decades, wellbeing economics has evolved from a peripheral area of study into a central component of academic research and policy. Whilst subjective wellbeing (SWB) is increasingly accepted as a valid and measurable policy outcome, three key issues need to be addressed. First, the paper highlights the importance of attention, arguing that SWB metrics should better reflect what individuals notice and experience in daily life, rather than relying primarily on global evaluations. Second, it emphasizes assortment, or heterogeneity, demonstrating that the determinants of wellbeing vary significantly across individuals and contexts, making average effects an incomplete and sometimes misguided guide for policy. Third, it foregrounds affiliation, positioning social connection, particularly shared experiences, as a fundamental determinant of SWB. Taken together, these themes suggest a more nuanced and policy-relevant framework for wellbeing economics that captures experiences over time, accounts for diversity in responses, and recognizes social connection as central to improving human welfare.

In this short article I try to provide a description of the first conference on the economics of happiness. It was held in 1993 at the London School of Economics. In the ensuing three decades, a huge literature has emerged in this field. I attempt to offer a view on why this has happened.