This paper considers the impact of two measures of lifestyle—the consumption of fruit and vegetables and doing exercise—on individual well-being. Since lifestyle is likely to be endogenous, we correct for this by using two dimensions of delayed gratification as instruments. The ability to delay gratification enables individuals to give greater weight to the investment component of lifestyle decisions rather than merely the affective component. Our analysis is based on the UK Understanding Society Data, which covers 40,000 UK households over time. We find that the two delayed gratification instruments are positive and significant in influencing lifestyle. In Stage 2, we find that fruit and vegetable consumption and sports activity increase life satisfaction, though the impacts vary for men and women. These results are robust across income quartiles, region, gender, education and age groups.

本文考虑了两种生活方式衡量标准——水果和蔬菜的消费以及锻炼——对个人幸福感的影响。由于生活方式可能是内生的，我们通过使用延迟满足的两个维度作为工具来纠正这一点。延迟满足的能力使个人能够更加重视生活方式决策的投资部分，而不仅仅是情感部分。我们的分析基于英国了解社会数据，随着时间的推移，该数据涵盖了 40,000 个英国家庭。我们发现这两种延迟满足工具在影响生活方式方面是积极且显着的。在第 2 阶段，我们发现水果和蔬菜的消费和体育活动提高了生活满意度，尽管对男性和女性的影响各不相同。这些结果在收入四分位数上都很稳健，