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1
CHAPTER 1: EXPLAINING HEALTH SATISFACTION AND LIFE
SATISFACTION IN EAST AND WEST GERMANY POST-REUNIFICATION
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The former German Democratic Republic (GDR, also referred to as East
Germany) experienced political, economic, institutional, and social changes after
reunification with the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, also referred to as West
Germany) in October 1990. In this paper, the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP) data
are used to evaluate how self-reported health and other components of the transition,
including economic circumstances, health care, and stress, affected the trends in health
and life satisfaction in East Germany relative to West Germany.1 The first contribution of
this paper is to show the effect of self-reported health on health satisfaction and life
satisfaction. In doing so, I investigate the cause of the decline in health satisfaction for
young East Germans as compared to young West Germans. The results are then
compared to the results for the older age group to determine why there was a relative
decline (between East and West Germany) in health satisfaction for the young, but not for
the old. The final analysis in this paper aims to determine whether changes in health,
health care, or economic circumstances contributed to the trends in life satisfaction after
reunification.
Health satisfaction is one of the most important domains of life satisfaction, a
commonly used measure of well-being. It incorporates both objective health
circumstances and subjective perceptions of those circumstances. Evaluating the trends in
1 The data used here were made available by the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (2004) at the
German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Berlin.
1
Object Description
| Title | Essays on health and well-being |
| Author | Zweig, Jacqueline Smith |
| Author email | smith2@usc.edu; jackiesmith04@yahoo.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Economics |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2011-03-23 |
| Date submitted | 2011 |
| Restricted until | Restricted until 26 Apr. 2012. |
| Date published | 2012-04-26 |
| Advisor (committee chair) |
Easterlin, Richard A. Ham, John C. |
| Advisor (committee member) | Melguizo, Tatiana |
| Abstract | This dissertation is comprised of three chapters that use microeconometric techniques to investigate the factors that affect people’s well-being. In the first two chapters, well-being is defined as life satisfaction or health satisfaction. The first chapter explores how the movement from socialism to capitalism affected the life satisfaction and health satisfaction of East Germans relative to West Germans after reunification. The second chapter examines whether women are happier, less happy, or equally happy as men in countries at various stages of development. The third chapter examines whether pollution affects the academic performance of school children; their academic performance and achievements will have important implications for their future well-being. |
| Keyword | happiness; well-being |
| Geographic subject | Germany |
| Geographic subject (state) | California |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA |
| Coverage date | 1990/2010; 2002/2008 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3782 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Zweig, Jacqueline Smith |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Zweig-4500 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume23/etd-Zweig-4500.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 10 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 1 CHAPTER 1: EXPLAINING HEALTH SATISFACTION AND LIFE SATISFACTION IN EAST AND WEST GERMANY POST-REUNIFICATION 1.1 INTRODUCTION The former German Democratic Republic (GDR, also referred to as East Germany) experienced political, economic, institutional, and social changes after reunification with the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, also referred to as West Germany) in October 1990. In this paper, the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP) data are used to evaluate how self-reported health and other components of the transition, including economic circumstances, health care, and stress, affected the trends in health and life satisfaction in East Germany relative to West Germany.1 The first contribution of this paper is to show the effect of self-reported health on health satisfaction and life satisfaction. In doing so, I investigate the cause of the decline in health satisfaction for young East Germans as compared to young West Germans. The results are then compared to the results for the older age group to determine why there was a relative decline (between East and West Germany) in health satisfaction for the young, but not for the old. The final analysis in this paper aims to determine whether changes in health, health care, or economic circumstances contributed to the trends in life satisfaction after reunification. Health satisfaction is one of the most important domains of life satisfaction, a commonly used measure of well-being. It incorporates both objective health circumstances and subjective perceptions of those circumstances. Evaluating the trends in 1 The data used here were made available by the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (2004) at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Berlin. 1 |
