We present econometric evidence consistent with the existence of hedonic adaptation -- to use the term of Frederick and Loewenstein 1999 -- to disability
2008
Does happiness adapt? A longitudinal study of disability with implications for economists and judges
Key concepts
- physical health
- Cambridge
- Andrew Clark
- Mark Stewart
- happiness
- Cardiff
- University of Warwick
- random effects
- Jennifer Smith
- fixed effects
- Birmingham
- I3
- longitudinal evidence
- Sheffield
- Mark Harrison
- Carol Graham
- Economic and Social Research Council
- Daniel Gilbert
- human being
- Disability
- well-being
- hedonic adaptation
- Paul Dolan
- I31
- British Household Panel Survey
- adaptation
- Harvard
Scholarcy highlights
- Many writings in the psychology literature argue that utility recovers after a bad life shock
- We present econometric evidence consistent with the existence of hedonic adaptation -- to use the term of -- to disability
- Wilson and Gilbert suggest that hedonic adaptation is not reducible to the type of adaptation found in the sensory systems
- In the fixed-effects specification of column 6 of Table 1, it is not possible to reject the null of approximately 100% adaptation to moderate disability, and there is more than 60% adaptation to severe disablement
- This paper studies shocks to utility and how human beings respond to them
- Our focus is on disability, but the paper’s message is potentially a more general one
- Such methods may eventually come to have practical applications, such as in courts of law
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