We test for whether, once "basic needs" are satisfied, there is happiness adaptation to further gains in income using … of European countries from 1975-2002, shows different patterns of adaptation to income across the rich and poor. We find … evidence that for wealthy Germans, and for the rich half of European nations, higher levels of per capita income don't buy …

We study "habituation" to income and to status using individual panel data on the happiness of 7,812 people living in … Germany from 1984 to 2000. Specifically, we estimate a "happiness equation" defined over several lags of income and status and … compare the long run effects. We can (cannot) reject the hypothesis of no adaptation to income (status) during the four years …

The cross-national intragenerational income mobility literature assumes within-country mobility is invariant over the … the entire period 1984-2006, we find the conventional result that income mobility is greater in Germany. But when we cut … the data into moving five-year windows and compare mobility before and after reunification, income mobility declines …