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The Courier-Tribune:
I've been thrown a U-shaped curve

3 August 2016

My best year is supposed to be now. Sixty-nine years old, to be exact. According to the Center for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, the two happiest years of life are 23 and 69. In between, we're in despair but things gradually get better as we approach 70. It's a U-shaped graph, with happiness at both ends and the depths of despair in the middle. ''One theory is that the U-shape is driven by unmet aspirations which are painfully felt in midlife but beneficially abandoned later in life,'' Princeton researcher Hannes Schwandt, who led the study, told the London Daily Mail.

This article was published by The Courier-Tribune (North Carolina) on August 3, 2016
Link to article here

Related publications
Unmet Aspirations as an Explanation for the Age U-Shape in Human Wellbeing, Hannes Schwandt, Centre for Economic Performance Discussion Paper No.1229, July 2013

Related links
Hannes Schwandt webpage
Wellbeing Programme webpage

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