Healthy, Wealthy, Wise and Happy? An Exploratory Analysis of the Interplay between Aging and Subjective Wellbeing in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Gabriela Flores, Université de Lausanne
Michael Ingenhaag, Université de Lausanne
Juergen Maurer, RAND Corporation

This paper studies the relationship between age and psychological wellbeing among persons aged 50 and older from five low and middle-income countries (China, India, Ghana, Russia and South Africa). The data come from the first wave of the WHO Study on Global Aging and Adult Health (SAGE) of 2007-2010. Psychological wellbeing is measured via four different survey instruments that cover distinct aspects of evaluative and emotional wellbeing. Evaluative wellbeing tends to decrease across middle and old age, while emotional wellbeing appears to be fairly stable during later life. Accounting for differences in respondents’ demographic, health, economic and social status, however, typically yields positive partial effects of age on both evaluative and emotional wellbeing. Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions of the unconditional disadvantage in psychological wellbeing of older persons relative to middle-aged people highlight that this disadvantage is mainly due to lower levels of health, economic resources and community involvement at higher ages.