Can you put a monetary value on happiness? Apparently you can, according to Professor Paul Frijters. The man, named best Australian Economist under 40 years of age, has attempted to put a monetary value on major events in people’s lives.
What is interesting when you read the figures he has come up with is the difference between how major events affect women and men. Take marriage for example. The monetary value Professor Frijters has on marriage for a woman is +$15,600. The monetary value of marriage for a man is pegged at +$31,600. The monetary value of the birth of a baby is +$8,700 for a woman and yet +$32,600 for a man.
And when it comes to the death of a loved one, for a woman has a value of -$130,900 whereas for a man it is -$627,300. Separation or divorce is -$8,900 for a woman while for a man it is -$109,300.
How has Professor Frijters arrived at these monetary values for events? He has been using a set of information which tracked the major life events, both good and bad, in around 10,000 Australian men and women annually since 2001. So over that 8 years he has built up what he believes is a picture of what makes people happy and how happy it makes them.
It is based on a survey which asked people to describe on a scale of 1-10 how satisfied they are with their lives. The answer apparently most people surveyed came up with was an 8 but those answers change according to major life events or changes of income.
So he arrived at the figures which are not how much a marriage or birth of a child would cost but ‘a psychic benefit.’ But what does that mean in real terms? Is your marriage worth more to you in the happiness takes than +$15,600 or +$31,600. Mine is. It’s impossible to put a price on.
I have to admit I find it odd that men are more affected by these major events than women are. It all sounds a bit suspect to me. But then sometimes I think people can make surveys say anything they want them to say. What do you think?
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