Dr. Alan Piper

Profile

Summary

Alan joined the economics department at Leeds in 2022. Before then he worked for institutions in Germany and France, as well as the UK. His central research interest is human wellbeing, and often has an interdisciplinary focus. He has published numerous articles on wellbeing in relation to contemporary issues, such as ageing, gender gaps, migration, overeducation, physical pain, and sleep. He is a Global Labour Organisation fellow, a member of the scientific team of Harvard’s Global Flourishing Survey, and a member of the World Wellbeing Panel. His research has been formally commended for “demonstrating innovation and excellence in happiness studies”. 

Publications

Peer-reviewed journal articles:

“A reconsideration of the relationship between town size and well-being in Latin America” (forthcoming, with Antje Jantsch), Applied Research in Quality of Life.

"Psychological well-being and the tendency to follow official recommendations against COVID-19: A U-shaped relationship?" (2024, with Benedicte Apouey, Fabrice Etile, Claus Voegle, and Remi Yin), PLOS One, available online.

“The role of gender inequality in the overeducation and life satisfaction relationship: An empirical analysis using panel data from Korea" (2023, with Amina Ahmed-Lahsen and Ida-Anna Thiele), Education Economics, available online.

“Age and Happiness - Resolving the Debate” (2023, with David Blanchflower and Carol Graham), National Institute of Economic Research, 263, pp.76-93.

“Is pain associated with subsequent job loss? A panel study for Germany (2023, with David Blanchflower and Alex Bryson) Kyklos, 76(1), pp. 141-158.

“What does dynamic panel analysis tell us about life satisfaction?” (2023), Review of Income and Wealth, 69(2), pp. 376-394.

“Sleep Quality and the evolution of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from five European Countries” (2022, with Samira Jabakhanji, Anthony Lepinteur, Giorgia Menta and Claus Voegle), PLOS One., 17(12), available online.

“Gender, loneliness and happiness during COVID-19” (2022, with Andrew Clark, Conchita D’Ambrosio, Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Anthony Lepinteur and Carsten Schröder), Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics 101, available online.

“There is a midlife-low in Germany” (2022, with David Blanchflower), Economics Letters, 214, available online.

“Optimism, pessimism and life satisfaction: an empirical investigation” (2022), International Review of Economics, 69, pp.177–208.

“Temps dip deeper: Temporary employment and the nadir in human well-being” (2021), The Journal of the Economics of the Ageing, 19, available online.

“Property rights and intellectual property protection, GDP and individual well-being in Latin America” (2019, with Amina Ahmed Lahsen), Latin American Economic Review, 28(12), pp. 1-21.

“Different strokes for different folks: Entrepreneurs' job satisfaction and the intersection of gender and migration background” (2019, with Teita Bijedic), International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 11(3), pp. 227-247.

 “An Investigation into the reported closing of the Nicaraguan gender gap” (2019), Social Indicators Research, 144(3), pp. 1391-1413.

“Satisfactions comparisons: women with families, full-time and part-time self-employed” (2017, with Ilona Ebbers), International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 9(2), pp. 171-187.

 “Sleep duration and life satisfaction” (2016), International Review of Economics, 63(4), pp. 305-325.

 “Issues in the estimation of dynamic happiness models: A comment on ‘does childhood predict adult life satisfaction?’” (2016, with Geoff Pugh), Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal, 10, pp. 1-6.

“Sliding down the U-shape? A dynamic panel investigation of the age-well-being relationship, focusing on young adults” (2015), Social Science & Medicine, 143, pp. 54-61.

“Europe’s capital cities and the happiness penalty: an investigation using the European Social Survey” (2015) Social Indicators Research, 123(1), pp. 103-126.

“Heaven knows I’m miserable now: overeducation and reduced life satisfaction” (2015) Education Economics, 23(6), pp. 677-692.

Book chapters, and non peer reviewed work:

“Age and happiness“, (2024) Elgar Encyclopedia on Happiness, Quality of Life and Subjective Well-being.

“Wellbeing over the worklife” (2023, with Anthony Lepinteur), Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics, available online.

“Gender (in-)equality and the life course” (2019, with Gerd Grözinger), Wirtschaftsdienst, 99(4), pp. 272-277.

“Existenzgründung von Frauen im Care-Bereich – Effekte von Arbeitszeit, Arbeitsform und Einkom*men auf Arbeits- und Lebenszufriedenheit“ (2018, with Ilona Ebbers and Kirsten Mikkelsen), in:  Mario Pfannstiel, Patrick Da-Cruz, Christoph Rasche (eds.), Entrepreneurship im Gesundheitswesen I, pp. 201-220.

“Fear of the Future” (2016), in: Leo Bormans (ed.), The World Book of Hope: The Source of Happiness, Success and Strength, pp. 311-313.

Student education

Alan has over twenty-five years of experience teaching at undergraduate level and above. He has taught most typical subjects within economics, with a current focus on welfare economics and other microeconomic topics, both applied and theoretical.