IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp14881.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Home Alone: Widows' Well-Being and Time

Author

Listed:
  • Adena, Maja

    (WZB - Social Science Research Center Berlin)

  • Hamermesh, Daniel S.

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Myck, Michal

    (Centre for Economic Analysis, CenEA)

  • Oczkowska, Monika

    (Centre for Economic Analysis, CenEA)

Abstract

Losing a partner is a life-changing experience. We draw on numerous datasets to examine differences between widowed and partnered older women and to provide a comprehensive picture of well-being in widowhood. Most importantly, our analysis accounts for time use in widowhood, an aspect which has not been studied previously. Based on data from several European countries we trace the evolution of well-being of women who become widowed by comparing them with their matched non-widowed 'statistical twins' and examine the role of an exceptionally broad set of potential moderators of widowhood's impact on well-being. We confirm a dramatic decrease in mental health and life satisfaction after the loss of partner, followed by a slow recovery. An extensive set of controls recorded prior to widowhood, including detailed family ties and social networks, provides little help in explaining the deterioration in well-being. Unique data from time-diaries kept by older women from several European countries and the U.S. tell us why: the key factor behind widows' reduced well-being is increased time spent alone.

Suggested Citation

  • Adena, Maja & Hamermesh, Daniel S. & Myck, Michal & Oczkowska, Monika, 2021. "Home Alone: Widows' Well-Being and Time," IZA Discussion Papers 14881, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14881
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp14881.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-00846456 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Andrew E. Clark & Ed Diener & Yannis Georgellis & Richard E. Lucas, 2008. "Lags And Leads in Life Satisfaction: a Test of the Baseline Hypothesis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(529), pages 222-243, June.
    3. Rebecca L. Utz & Kristin L. Swenson & Michael Caserta & Dale Lund & Brian deVries, 2014. "Feeling Lonely Versus Being Alone: Loneliness and Social Support Among Recently Bereaved Persons," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 69(1), pages 85-94.
    4. Regina Gerlich & Tobias Wolbring, 2021. "“In Good Times and in Bad, in Sickness and in Health”: A Longitudinal Analysis on Spousal Caregiving and Life Satisfaction," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1481-1516, March.
    5. Gyeong-Suk Jeon & Soong-Nang Jang & Dong-Sik Kim & Sung-Il Cho, 2013. "Widowhood and Depressive Symptoms Among Korean Elders: The Role of Social Ties," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 68(6), pages 963-973.
    6. repec:eme:rlec11:s0147-912120230000050016 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. J Robin Moon & Naoki Kondo & M Maria Glymour & S V Subramanian, 2011. "Widowhood and Mortality: A Meta-Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(8), pages 1-9, August.
    8. Daniel S. Hamermesh & Michał Myck & Monika Oczkowska, 2023. "Widows' Time: Adjusting to Loss," Research in Labor Economics, in: 50th Celebratory Volume, volume 50, pages 369-396, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    9. Li, Lydia & Liang, Jersey & Toler, Amanda & Gu, Shengzu, 2005. "Widowhood and depressive symptoms among older Chinese: Do gender and source of support make a difference?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 637-647, February.
    10. Andrew E. Clark & Yannis Georgellis, 2013. "Back to Baseline in Britain: Adaptation in the British Household Panel Survey," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 80(319), pages 496-512, July.
    11. Subramanian, S.V. & Elwert, Felix & Christakis, Nicholas, 2008. "Widowhood and mortality among the elderly: The modifying role of neighborhood concentration of widowed individuals," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 873-884, February.
    12. Christoph Wunder & Johannes Schwarze, 2014. "Is Posner Right? An Empirical Test of the Posner Argument for Transferring Health Spending from Old Women to Old Men," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 15(6), pages 1239-1257, December.
    13. Yang, Fang & Gu, Danan, 2021. "Widowhood, widowhood duration, and loneliness among older adults in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    14. Juster, F Thomas & Stafford, Frank P, 1991. "The Allocation of Time: Empirical Findings, Behavioral Models, and Problems of Measurement," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 29(2), pages 471-522, June.
    15. Ed Diener & Shigehiro Oishi & Louis Tay, 2018. "Advances in subjective well-being research," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 2(4), pages 253-260, April.
    16. Avis, Nancy E. & Brambilla, Donald J. & Vass, Kerstin & McKinlay, John B., 1991. "The effect of widowhood on health: A prospective analysis from the Massachusetts women's health study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1063-1070, January.
    17. Gary R. Lee & Alfred DeMaris & Stefoni Bavin & Rachel Sullivan, 2001. "Gender Differences in the Depressive Effect of Widowhood in Later Life," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 56(1), pages 56-61.
    18. Posner, Richard A., 1997. "Aging and Old Age," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226675688, January.
    19. Elizabeth A. Hahn & Kelly E. Cichy & Brent J. Small & David M. Almeida, 2014. "Daily Emotional and Physical Reactivity to Stressors Among Widowed and Married Older Adults," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 69(1), pages 19-28.
    20. King, Gary & Nielsen, Richard, 2019. "Why Propensity Scores Should Not Be Used for Matching," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(4), pages 435-454, October.
    21. Sheung-Tak Cheng & Trista Wai Sze Chan & Geoff H. K. Li & Edward M. F. Leung, 2014. "Childlessness and Subjective Well-being in Chinese Widowed Persons," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 69(1), pages 48-52.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. No title
      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2023-02-27 18:47:42

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Friedman-Sokuler, Naomi & Senik, Claudia, 2023. "Time-Use and Subjective Well-Being: Is Diversity Really the Spice of Life?," IZA Discussion Papers 16090, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Magaña, Diego, 2023. "Diferencias de género en el bienestar de los adultos en el Reino Unido (2014-15) [Gender Differences in Adult Wellbeing in the United Kingdom (2014-15)]," MPRA Paper 118560, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Márta K. Radó, 2020. "Tracking the Effects of Parenthood on Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Hungary," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(6), pages 2069-2094, August.
    2. Kung, Claryn S.J., 2020. "Health in widowhood: The roles of social capital and economic resources," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    3. Yang, Fang & Gu, Danan, 2021. "Widowhood, widowhood duration, and loneliness among older adults in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    4. Andrew E. Clark, 2018. "Four Decades of the Economics of Happiness: Where Next?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(2), pages 245-269, June.
    5. Andrew E. Clark, 2015. "SWB as a Measure of Individual Well-Being," Working Papers halshs-01134483, HAL.
    6. Lionel WILNER, 2019. "The Dynamics of Individual Happiness," Working Papers 2019-18, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    7. Hudde, Ansgar & Jacob, Marita, 2022. "There’s More in the Data! Using Month-Specific Information to Estimate Changes Before and After Major Life Events," SocArXiv vueas, Center for Open Science.
    8. Kaiser, Caspar, 2020. "People do not adapt. New analyses of the dynamic effects of own and reference income on life satisfaction," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 494-513.
    9. Andrew E. Clark, 2016. "Adaptation and the Easterlin Paradox," Creative Economy, in: Toshiaki Tachibanaki (ed.), Advances in Happiness Research, edition 1, chapter 0, pages 75-94, Springer.
    10. O’Leary, Nigel & Li, Ian W. & Gupta, Prashant & Blackaby, David, 2020. "Wellbeing trajectories around life events in Australia," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 499-509.
    11. Andrew E. Clark & Conchita D’Ambrosio & Simone Ghislandi, 2016. "Adaptation to Poverty in Long-Run Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 98(3), pages 591-600, July.
    12. Andrew E. Clark & Luis Diaz-Serrano, 2023. "Do individuals adapt to all types of housing transitions?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 645-672, June.
    13. Decker, Simon & Schmitz, Hendrik, 2016. "Health shocks and risk aversion," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 156-170.
    14. Dolan, Paul & Moran, Cahal & Outes, Ingo, 2023. "All we want is a healthy baby – well, and one that is the opposite sex to what we have already1," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    15. Kaiser, Caspar, 2018. "People do not adapt to income changes: A re-evaluation of the dynamic effects of (reference) income on life satisfaction with GSOEP and UKHLS data," INET Oxford Working Papers 2018-07, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    16. Bauer, Jan Michael & Cords, Dario & Sellung, Rachelle & Sousa-Poza, Alfonso, 2015. "Effects of different life events on life satisfaction in the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 91-94.
    17. Magnani, Elisabetta & Zhu, Rong, 2018. "Does kindness lead to happiness? Voluntary activities and subjective well-being," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 20-28.
    18. Baetschmann, Gregori & Staub, Kevin E. & Studer, Raphael, 2016. "Does the stork deliver happiness? Parenthood and life satisfaction," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 242-260.
    19. Ansgar Hudde & Marita Jacob, 2023. "There’s More in the Data! Using Month-Specific Information to Estimate Changes Before and After Major Life Events," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1184, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    20. Jeehoon Han & Caspar Kaiser, 2024. "Time use and happiness: US evidence across three decades," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(1), pages 1-25, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    time use; well-being; social networks; widowhood;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • I19 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Other
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14881. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.