Notes to Pages 1–18- The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), Gal-
lup World Poll (GWP), Eurobarometer, and European Social Survey
(ESS). These are repeated surveys but use different samples each time.
We also use the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). The
Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) also now includes measures
of well- being, but we do not use it because the series is short. For the
United States we use the BRFSS in preference to the PSID because it
has good data on mental health. We also use the US National Longitu-
dinal Survey of Youth. - For contents, see Contents of Online Materials in this book.
The online materials are available at http://cep.lse.ac.uk/origins/online
material.pdf. - OECD (2016). For France, see https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/af
fichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000030478182&dateTexte=20150809,
and for Italy http://www.senato.it/leg/17/BGT/Schede/FascicoloSchede
DDL/ebook/46876.pdf. - On launching the National Dialogue on Wellbeing, April 2015.
Chapter 1. Happiness over the Life Course:
What Matters Most?- The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children
( ALSPAC). For Survey Details, see online materials. - In the Gallup World Poll 78% of the variance of life- evaluation
across the human adult population is within countries, and 22% be-
tween countries (Helliwell, Layard, and Sachs [2012], chapter 2). - For each individual there are two observations, at 34 and 42.
These are the only ages we include as they are the only ages where
health was measured by the number of health conditions. Apart from
that the equations for ages 30 and 26 are very similar to those for ages
34 and 42— see Flèche, Lekfuangfu, and Clark (2017). - The standard deviation of X in a population is (Xi^ – X
̄) (^) N
where N is the size of the population.
- These standardized variables thus all have a standard deviation
of 1. - The share of the variance of the dependent variable that is ex-
plained by the independent variables is
R^2 = iβi^2 + ijβiβjrij (i ≠ j)
where rij is the correlation coefficient.