Money and Mental Wellbeing: A Longitudinal Study of Medium-Sized Lottery Wins

28 Pages Posted: 10 Aug 2006

See all articles by Jonathan Gardner

Jonathan Gardner

Towers Watson

Andrew J. Oswald

University of Warwick - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: July 2006

Abstract

One of the famous questions in social science is whether money makes people happy. We offer new evidence by using longitudinal data on a random sample of Britons who receive medium-sized lottery wins of between £1000 and £120,000 (that is, up to approximately U.S. $200,000). When compared to two control groups - one with no wins and the other with small wins - these individuals go on eventually to exhibit significantly better psychological health. Two years after a lottery win, the average measured improvement in mental wellbeing is 1.4 GHQ points.

Keywords: psychological health, happiness, GHQ, income

JEL Classification: D1, I3

Suggested Citation

Gardner, Jonathan and Oswald, Andrew J., Money and Mental Wellbeing: A Longitudinal Study of Medium-Sized Lottery Wins (July 2006). IZA Discussion Paper No. 2233, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=923539 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.923539

Jonathan Gardner

Towers Watson ( email )

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Andrew J. Oswald (Contact Author)

University of Warwick - Department of Economics ( email )

Coventry CV4 7AL
United Kingdom
523510 (Phone)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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Germany

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