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Giuntella, Osea, McManus, Sally, Mujcic, Redzo, Oswald, Andrew J., Powdthavee, Nattavudh and Tohamy, Ahmed (2023) The midlife crisis. Economica, 90 (357). pp. 65-110. doi:10.1111/ecca.12452 ISSN 0013-0427.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12452
Abstract
This paper documents a longitudinal crisis of midlife among the inhabitants of rich nations. Yet middle-aged citizens in our datasets are close to their peak earnings, have typically experienced little or no illness, reside in some of the safest countries in the world, and live in the most prosperous era in human history. This is paradoxical and troubling. The finding is consistent, however, with the prediction—one little-known to economists—of Elliott Jaques (1965). Our analysis does not rest on elementary cross-sectional analysis. Instead, the paper uses panel and through-time data on, in total, approximately 500,000 individuals. It checks that the key results are not due to cohort effects. Nor do we rely on simple life satisfaction measures. The paper shows that there are approximately quadratic hill-shaped patterns in data on midlife suicide, sleeping problems, alcohol dependence, concentration difficulties, memory problems, intense job strain, disabling headaches, suicidal feelings, and extreme depression. We believe that the seriousness of this societal problem has not been grasped by the affluent world's policy-makers.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Economica | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Wiley | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 0013-0427 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | January 2023 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 90 | ||||||||
| Number: | 357 | ||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 65-110 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1111/ecca.12452 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 7 September 2022 | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 6 December 2022 | ||||||||
| Related URLs: | |||||||||
| Open Access Version: |
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