The name is absent

In an attempt to create a consistent series across the last fifty years, we pool each of these time series and run the
following regression to estimate the extent of the relevant series breaks, while controlling for secular and cyclical
influences:

Well-beingt = -1.67 -0.26*I(1964≤year≤1969) -0.54*I(1970≤year≤1991) -0.59 *I(1992≤year)
(0.49) (0.07)                     (0.11)                      (0.14)

-0.06*Unemployment rate_t +0.24*log(GDP per capita_t)       n=51

(0.02)                        (0.06)

The coefficients on each of the three dummy variables reveal that the changes in the survey question did in fact yield
statistically significant (and clearly economically important) changes in estimated well-being. Making adjustments for the
series breaks suggested by this regression results in the gray line in the bottom panel of Figure 19. This time series
suggests that subjective well-being did in fact grow strongly in Japan, at least through the period in which GDP grew most
strongly. The regression also finds an important role for unemployment, and this factor explains most of the sharp decline
in subjective well-being through the 1990s, as well as the reversal over the past few years as unemployment has started to
decline.³⁴ The unemployment coefficient is roughly comparable to, although somewhat larger than, estimates for other
OECD countries (Wolfers, 2003). We can also use this coefficient to back out a “cyclically adjusted” well-being series for
Japan, also shown in the bottom panel of Figure 19. As should be clear, this series bears a strong relationship with GDP
per capita, and indeed, the estimated coefficient, 0.24, is again roughly consistent with our other time-series findings.

Finally, other data also suggest that well-being in Japan has tracked the country’s economic development. For
instance, from 1974 through 1991 the same survey also asked, “How do you feel about your life now?” and the proportion
answering “perfectly complete” or “somewhat complete” trended strongly upward. A somewhat different version of the
question was asked from 1992 through 2007, and the proportions feeling perfectly or somewhat complete show a slow
decline over this later period. The World Values Survey also provides useful time-series comparisons: in 1981, 16 percent
of Japanese respondents reported being very happy, rising to 18 percent in 1990 and then 34 percent in 1995, before
falling slightly to 29 percent in 2000. Life satisfaction data from that survey yield a less clear trend, but given the impact
of changes in question ordering, it is worth noting that the decline in life satisfaction in Japan was smaller than that
experienced in most other countries. Other early assessments of well-being were shown in Figure 1: in each of the
comparisons in which Japan is included (the 1960 “Patterns of Human Concerns” surveys, the 1965 World Survey, and
the 1975 Kettering survey, shown in Figure 6), subjective well-being in Japan was consistent with its moderate level of
economic development. More recent surveys (such as the World Values Survey or the Gallup World Poll) show that
Japan’s well-being is now at a level consistent with its status today as an affluent country.

³⁴ If instead we estimated this equation without controlling for unemployment, the estimated coefficient on log GDP per capita would
be 0.16 (with a standard error of 0.06).

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