Thesurveyresultsincludedetailedcharacteristicsofthosesurveyed-married， divorced， single， incomelevel， race， gender， ， theyfoundwhichfactorsareassociatedwithgreaterhappiness.
.Constructingasortofhappinessindexthatassigns3to “veryhappy”， 2to “prettyhappy”， and1to “nottoohappy”， $10，000wouldgiveyou0.04unitsofextrahappiness.
Thetwoeconomists， usingthisindex， assignadollarvaluetootherfactorsassociatedwithmoreorlesshappiness.
Usingthatdevice， alastingmarriageisworth $100， “separated” isthegreatestdepressantofhappiness， followedcloselybythedeathofaspouse.
Secondandsubsequentmarriagesarelesshappythanfirstmarriagesonaverage.
A16-year-oldwhoseparentsdivorcedhasalowerlevelofwell-beinginadulthood.
“Marriageisbelievedbypsychologistsandpsychiatriststoprovideaprotectiveeffecttomentalwell-being.” Theauthorsnote.
BlanchflowersuspectsthedeclineinthehappinesslevelofAmericansfromtheearly1970stothelate1990s， despiterisingincomes， maybeattributedtotheriseindivorce.
Otherfindingsinclude：
TobringAfrican-Americansuptoaveragehappinesslevels， theywouldneedanextra $30，000inannualincome.
This， theauthorsspeculate， ， however， theirhappinesslevelhasrisen.“Blackshavemadeupsomeground.” Theysay.
Unemploymentishighlydamagingtomen’ $60，000ayeartooffsetbeingjobless.
Men’ ’ ssenseofwell-being， thoughhigherthanthatofmen， hasfallen “noticeably”.
Policiesaimedatendingdiscriminationagainstwomenapparentlyhavenotboostedtheirhappinessoverall.
