Sundays Are Blue: Aren't They? The Day-of-the-week Effect On Subjective Well-being And Socio-economic Status

This paper analyzes whether individuals are influenced by the day of the week when reporting subjective well-being. By using a large panel data set and controlling for observed and unobserved individual characteristics, the authors find a large day-of the-week effect. Overall, they find a 'Blue' Sunday effect with the lowest level of subjective well-being. The day-of-the-week effect differs with certain socio-economic and demographic factors such as employment, marital status and age. The paper concludes with recommendations for future analyses of subjective well-being data and design of data collections.