Journal
APPLIED ECONOMICS LETTERS
Volume 30, Issue 14, Pages 1923-1929Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2022.2083566
Keywords
Subjective well-being; happiness; time preference; intertemporal choice; patience
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Patience is a crucial factor in determining subjective well-being differences between countries. This study finds evidence of a significant causal effect of patience on subjective well-being, which remains robust across various specifications and measures.
We show that patience is a key determinant of subjective well-being differences between countries. To address potential endogeneity bias, we apply an instrumental variable approach using the share of Protestants in the country, which prior literature has associated with patience and used as an instrument. While tentative, our findings are consistent with a sizable causal effect of patience on subjective well-being. They are robust across several specifications and hold for three different measures of subjective well-being: life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect.
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