Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series Database (1984 - 2010)
Melbourne Institute Working Paper No. 14/2010
Personality, Well-being and Heterogeneous Valuations of Income and Work
by
Stefanie Schurer and Jongsay Yong
Date:July 2010
Abstract:Using Australian longitudinal data and a random coefficient approach, this paper investigates whether personality traits explain the heterogeneity in these valuations. We find that differences in subjective well-being are driven by Emotional Stability. Women's valuations of income depend on their score of Openness to Experience and men significantly differ in their valuations of work across the spectrum of Emotional Stability and Conscientiousness. Our study directly tests predictions of Self-Determination Theory and contributes to the debate on the assumption of homogeneous agents in economic theory.
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