British Household Panel Survey

[littlewizard123]

Hi all,

 

Just entered the dizzying heights of a PhD. I just have a few questions about the Panel Survey, which I've just started looking into.

 

I want to do something on well-being, or happiness or something like that. Is there a variable in the survey that gives an indicator of well-being?

 

Also, I wanted to obviosuly try to predict well-being from given variables. Are there any obvious variables I should look at? I wanted to use consumption data, is this a good idea/possible?

 

As I've just started, it makes sense to me to find the data that's available first, and then come up with a research topic/question once I know that I have data!

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thank you!

 

EDIT: Just found a "health over 12 months" variable. It seems as if this is an individually chosen rating based on self assessment, so this is a possible dependent variable. I'll probably end up editting this post a few times as I'm going through the variable set, I just want to ensure the route I take is a good thesis area.

[Kaysa]

Why don't you use their depression index.

[Noise]

GfK has a consumer confidence indicator - is this the sort of thing you're looking for? GfK Consumer Confidence Barometer ? Monthly survey monitoring the general public?s confidence in the British Economy

[Irrational]

Hey,

 

also just started working with the BHPS Data. Think this might help you:

BHPS Documentation

 

Have a look at the Volume A issue as well. Ah, and let me know when you import the data into a db or similar (been struggling with MATLAB, a db solution would probably be neat).

[littlewizard123]

Why don't you use their depression index.

 

Thanks. I'll have a look.

 

GfK has a consumer confidence indicator - is this the sort of thing you're looking for? GfK Consumer Confidence Barometer ? Monthly survey monitoring the general public?s confidence in the British Economy

 

Looks interesting. Is there any way to access this data for free?

 

Health care is one possibility, I think I want it to be more economics-based though. Something along the lines of "How does consumption affect happiness?". My strengths are in Econometric modelling, so ideally I'd like to be able to test different discrete choice models, plus use panel data etc. Not sure how to go about the consumption idea though!

[littlewizard123]

Any ideas? :)

[Irrational]

Any ideas? :)

 

What was the question? :)

 

You can also try the German SOEP, which has a happiness variable. However, you would have to pay something around 20-30€, because they only send the data via mail due to privacy law.

[littlewizard123]

What was the question? :)

 

You can also try the German SOEP, which has a happiness variable. However, you would have to pay something around 20-30€, because they only send the data via mail due to privacy law.

 

I probably should've asked something specific...

 

I found a "life satisfaction" variable, which is sufficient. I'm just not sure which area to look at for independent variables for the panel data. Things like age, marriage etc. can be included, but it's not very specific. Ideally I'd like some kind of consumer confidence indicator, but there isn't really one in the survey.

[Irrational]

For some inspiration you could look at papers by Andrew J. Oswald, imo he does good research on this.

Andrew J. Oswald at IDEAS

 

Teaser:

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

Money, Sex, and Happiness: An Empirical Study (not BHPS)

 

Have you already found an economic question? Then one might help you even better.