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Sundays Are Blue: Aren’t They? The Day-of-the-Week Effect on Subjective Well-Being and Socio-Economic Status

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  • Akay, Alpaslan

    (University of Gothenburg)

  • Martinsson, Peter

    (University of Gothenburg)

Abstract

This paper analyses whether individuals are influenced by the day of the week when reporting subjective well-being. By using a large panel data set and controlling for observed and unobserved individual characteristics, we find a large day-of the-week effect. Overall, we find a 'blue' Sunday effect with the lowest level of subjective well-being. The day-of-the-week effect differs with certain socio-economic and demographic factors such as employment, marital status and age. The paper concludes with recommendations for future analyses of subjective well-being data and design of data collections.

Suggested Citation

  • Akay, Alpaslan & Martinsson, Peter, 2009. "Sundays Are Blue: Aren’t They? The Day-of-the-Week Effect on Subjective Well-Being and Socio-Economic Status," IZA Discussion Papers 4563, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4563
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    Cited by:

    1. Luigi CURINI & Stefano IACUS & Luciano CANOVA, 2013. "Measuring Psychospread: idiosyncratic happiness of Italian citizens through the analysis of their tweets," Departmental Working Papers 2013-18, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    2. Wunder, Christoph & Heineck, Guido, 2013. "Working time preferences, hours mismatch and well-being of couples: Are there spillovers?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 244-252.
    3. Georgios Kavetsos & Marika Dimitriadou & Paul Dolan, 2014. "Measuring happiness: context matters," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(5), pages 308-311, March.
    4. Alpaslan Akay & Olivier Bargain & Mathias Dolls & Dirk Neumann & Andreas Peichl & Sebastian Siegloch, 2012. "Happy Taxpayers? Income Taxation and Well-Being," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 526, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    5. Semih Tumen & Tugba Zeydanli, 2014. "Day-of-the-Week Effects in Subjective Well-Being: Does Selectivity Matter?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 119(1), pages 139-162, October.
    6. Alpaslan Akay & Amelie Constant & Corrado Giulietti & Martin Guzi, 2017. "Ethnic diversity and well-being," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 30(1), pages 265-306, January.
    7. Pablo Diego-Rosell & Robert Tortora & James Bird, 2018. "International Determinants of Subjective Well-Being: Living in a Subjectively Material World," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 123-143, January.
    8. Semih Tumen & Tugba Zeydanli, 2015. "Is Happiness Contagious? Separating Spillover Externalities from the Group-Level Social Context," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 719-744, June.
    9. W. Maennig & M. Steenbeck & M. Wilhelm, 2014. "Rhythms and cycles in happiness," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 70-78, January.
    10. Jean-Luc Tavernier & Philippe Cuneo & Claire Plateau, 2015. "Measurement of Quality of Life and Well-Being in France: The Drivers of Subjective Well-Being," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(1), pages 25-33, March.
    11. John Helliwell & Shun Wang, 2014. "Weekends and Subjective Well-Being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(2), pages 389-407, April.
    12. Gaël Brulé & Ruut Veenhoven, 2017. "The ‘10 Excess’ Phenomenon in Responses to Survey Questions on Happiness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(2), pages 853-870, March.
    13. Luigi Curini & Stefano Iacus & Luciano Canova, 2015. "Measuring Idiosyncratic Happiness Through the Analysis of Twitter: An Application to the Italian Case," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 121(2), pages 525-542, April.
    14. Ádám Stefkovics & Endre Sik, 2022. "What Drives Happiness? The Interviewer’s Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 2745-2762, August.
    15. Philip S. Morrison & Stephanié Rossouw & Talita Greyling, 2022. "The impact of exogenous shocks on national wellbeing. New Zealanders’ reaction to COVID-19," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(3), pages 1787-1812, June.
    16. Gregor Gonza & Anže Burger, 2017. "Subjective Well-Being During the 2008 Economic Crisis: Identification of Mediating and Moderating Factors," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(6), pages 1763-1797, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    subjective well-being; day-of-the-week effect;

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

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