Material resources and well-being – Evidence from an Ethiopian housing lottery

Abstract

Do better material conditions improve well-being and mental health? Or does any positive relationship merely reflect that psychological well-being promotes economic success? We supply new responses to these questions by comparing winners and losers from a large Ethiopian housing lottery in a preregistered analysis. Winners gain access to better housing, experience a substantial increase in wealth, and report higher levels of overall life satisfaction and lower levels of financial distress. However, we find no effects of winning on psychological distress, suggesting that depression and anxiety involve other causal determinants and are less sensitive to economic conditions than life satisfaction is