caa a22 4500 606151621 CHVBK 20210128100544.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150201xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s11266-014-9500-z doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s11266-014-9500-z The Challenges of Untangling the Relationship Between Participation and Happiness [Elektronische Daten] [Matthew Winters, Ashlea Rundlett] Identifying the causes of happiness presents a challenge for researchers interested in this fundamental outcome variable. After reviewing previous literature looking at the causal effect of political participation on life satisfaction, we discuss the merits of using panel data, where there are repeated measurements over time for each individual, and discuss two common statistical models used in the analysis of panel data, the autoregressive distributed lag model, and the fixed effects model. We use both techniques to analyze the British Household Panel Survey and find evidence that social participation strongly predicts life satisfaction but not that voting participation predicts life satisfaction. We argue that the panel data models help reduce the risk of time-invariant omitted variable bias but are still subject to the problems of time-varying omitted variables and reverse causality. The article aims to provide guidance to researchers seeking to analyze the determinants of life satisfaction using large survey data sets. International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University, 2014 Happiness nationallicence Political participation nationallicence Voting nationallicence Survey data nationallicence Panel data analysis nationallicence Winters Matthew Department of Political Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 315 David Kinley Hall, MC-713, 1407W. Gregory Drive, 61801, Urbana, IL, USA aut Rundlett Ashlea Department of Political Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 420 David Kinley Hall, MC-713, 1407W. Gregory Drive, 61801, Urbana, IL, USA aut VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 26/1(2015-02-01), 5-23 0957-8765 26:1<5 2015 26 11266 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-014-9500-z text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-014-9500-z text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Winters Matthew Department of Political Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 315 David Kinley Hall, MC-713, 1407W. Gregory Drive, 61801, Urbana, IL, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Rundlett Ashlea Department of Political Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 420 David Kinley Hall, MC-713, 1407W. Gregory Drive, 61801, Urbana, IL, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 26/1(2015-02-01), 5-23 0957-8765 26:1<5 2015 26 11266