Chris Boyce
I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Manchester
ABOUT MY RESEARCH
My research is concerned with human happiness. What contributes to our happiness, and why? I combine ideas from psychology and economics to help our understanding of how life events, such as a promotion, income increases or unemployment influence our well-being.
Research Papers:
2012 and in press
Boyce, C. J., & Oswald, A. J. (in press). Do people become healthier after being promoted?. Health Economics (
- pdf).
Boyce, C.J., Wood, A. M., & Powdthavee, N. (in press). Is personality fixed? Personality changes as much as "variable" economic factors and more strongly predicts changes to life satisfaction. Social Indicators Research ( - pdf)
Wood, A. M., & Boyce, C. J. (in press). Personality. In A. Michalos [ed.] Encyclopedia of Quality of Life Research. New York: Springer ( - pdf)
Wood, A. M., Boyce, C. J., Moore, S. & Brown, G. D. A, (in press). An evolutionary based social rank explanation of why low income predicts mental distress: A 17 year cohort study of 30,000 people. Journal of Affective Disorders. ( - pdf)
2011
Boyce, C. J., & Wood, A. M. (2011). Personality prior to disability determines adaptation: Agreeable individuals recover lost life satisfaction faster and more completely. Psychological Science, 22, 183-191 ( - pdf)
Boyce, C. J., & Wood, A. M. (2011). Personality and the marginal utility of income: Personality interacts with increases in household income to determine life satisfaction. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 78, 183-191. ( - pdf)
2010
Boyce, C. J. (2010). Understanding fixed effects in human well-being. Journal of Economic Psychology, 31, 1-16 ( - pdf).
Boyce, C. J., Brown, G. D. A., & Moore, S. C. (2010). Money and happiness: Rank of income, not income, affects life satisfaction. Psychological Science, 21, 471-475 ( - pdf) (additional analyses - pdf).
Boyce, C. J., & Wood, A. M. (2010). Money or mental health: The cost of alleviating psychological distress with monetary compensation versus psychological therapy. Health Economics, Policy and Law, 5, 509-516 ( - pdf).
Boyce, C.J., Wood, A. M., & Brown, G. D. A. (2010). The dark side of conscientiousness: Conscientious people experience greater drops in life satisfaction following unemployment. Journal of Research in Personality, 44, 535-539 ( - pdf).
Phd thesis:
Subjective well-being: An intersection between economics and psychology ( -pdf)
Some thoughts on getting a PhD
Biographical Details: Chris Boyce is currently a Research Fellow in the School of Pscyhological Sciences at the University of Manchester. Chris graduated from the University of Surrey with a First Class honours degree in economics. He then moved to the University of Warwick to complete an MSc in Economics. At Warwick he then turned to psychology, where he completed his PhD. After his PhD he held a position as a Research Fellow at the Paris School of Economics. His current research remains primarily within the field of economics but draws on ideas from psychology. Specifically he is concerned with understanding how life events influence an individual's health and happiness.
Curriculum Vitae: ( - pdf)
Collaborators: Gordon Brown, Andrew Oswald, Alex Wood
Funding: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
