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Does Money Buy Happiness? Associations Between Family Wealth and Levels of Wellbeing of Young Australians

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Wealth(s) and Subjective Well-Being

Part of the book series: Social Indicators Research Series ((SINS,volume 76))

Abstract

Although widely portrayed as an egalitarian society, levels of wealth inequality are quite high in Australia. Families with high levels of wealth have more options in terms of where they can live, the schools their children can attend, and their social networks. Research shows that levels of wellbeing are related to personal wealth with wealthier individuals reporting higher levels of wellbeing than poorer individuals. Using data collected by the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) project, I examine the association between levels of family wealth and levels of wellbeing of four cohorts of young Australians aged between 15 and 18 years.

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Acknowledgement

This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (MIAESR). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the author and should not be attributed to either DSS or the MIAESR.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Youth Research Centre, MGSE, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Jenny Chesters

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  1. Jenny Chesters
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Correspondence to Jenny Chesters .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Gaël Brulé

  2. University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Christian Suter

Appendix

Appendix

Table 9.7 Maximum value in each household wealth quintile for each cohort
Full size table
Table 9.8 Maximum value in each household disposable income quintile for each cohort
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Table 9.9 Descriptive statistics of the sample
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Chesters, J. (2019). Does Money Buy Happiness? Associations Between Family Wealth and Levels of Wellbeing of Young Australians. In: Brulé, G., Suter, C. (eds) Wealth(s) and Subjective Well-Being. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 76. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05535-6_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05535-6_9

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05535-6

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