title: Money and mental wellbeing: a longitudinal study of medium-sized lottery wins.
abstract: One of the famous questions in social science is whether money makes people happy. We offer new evidence by using longitudinal data on a random sample of Britons who receive medium-sized lottery wins of between 1000 pounds and 120,000 pounds (that is, up to approximately US$ 200,000). When compared to two control groups -- one with no wins and the other with small wins -- these individuals go on eventually to exhibit significantly better psychological health. Two years after a lottery win, the average measured improvement in mental wellbeing is 1.4 GHQ points.
authors.affiliation: Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Watson House, London Road, Reigate, Surrey RH2 9PQ, UK.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Oswald
mesh_terms: D003625:Data Collection; D005715:Gambling; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D006113:United Kingdom