Does Being Smarter Make You Happier? Evidence from Europe shows that only those older than 50 seem to be happier

Does Being Smarter Make You Happier? Evidence from Europe. Rifaan Ahmed, Dusanee Kesavayuth, Vasileios Zikos. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2018.06.004

Highlights
•    We examine whether, and to what extent, cognitive abilities matter for the subjective well-being of older individuals
•    We utilize unique panel data from SHARE on individuals aged 50+
•    We find that individuals with higher cognitive abilities have, on average, higher levels of well-being
•    The beneficial effect of cognitive ability is more pronounced when it comes to the CASP measure as opposed to life satisfaction
•    The current paper provides some of the first empirical evidence on the relationship between cognition and well-being of older individuals in Europe

Abstract: In this paper we study the importance of cognitive abilities for the subjective well-being of older individuals. We draw unique panel data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) on a representative sample of individuals aged 50+. The analysis reveals that individuals with higher cognitive abilities have, on average, higher levels of subjective well-being. The result holds for two different well-being measures and remains robust under different specifications and limitations on the data. As such, it provides some of the first empirical evidence on the relationship between cognition and subjective well-being of older individuals in Europe.

Keywords: Life satisfaction; Quality of life; Cognition; Well-being; SHARE JEL codes: D01, I31