Working Paper: NBER ID: w21374
Authors: John F. Helliwell; Shun Wang
Abstract: In this paper we estimate the size of weekend effects for seven emotions and then explore their main determinants for the working population in the United States, using the Gallup/Healthways US Daily Poll 2008-2012. We first find that weekend effects exist for all emotions, and that these effects are not explained by sample selection bias. Full-time workers have a larger weekend effects than do part- time workers for all emotions except sadness, for which weekend effects are almost identical for all workers. We then explore the sources of weekend effects and find that workplace trust and workplace social relations, combined with differences in social time spent with family and friends, together almost fully explain the weekend effects for happiness, laughter, enjoyment and sadness, for both full-time and part-time workers, with significant but smaller proportions explained for the remaining three emotions - worry, anger and stress.
Keywords: weekend effects; happiness; emotions; social context; workplace trust
JEL Codes: I31; J81
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| weekend effects (G14) | emotional well-being (I31) |
| workplace trust (J29) | weekend effects for happiness (I31) |
| social relations (Z13) | weekend effects for happiness (I31) |
| social time with family and friends (Z00) | emotional well-being (I31) |
| weekend effects for happiness (I31) | emotional well-being (I31) |
| weekend effects (G14) | happiness (I31) |
| weekend effects (G14) | enjoyment (L82) |
| weekend effects (G14) | anger (Y60) |
| weekend effects (G14) | stress (J81) |