From the Herald -Sun 6/11/99, entitled: ‘Married Bliss all adds up’.

MONEY can’t buy you love but a happy marriage is worth thousands of dollars in the
bank. A study of more than 100,000 people in Britain and America has revealed that a
contented and lasting marriage is the key to happiness, and is more important than
material wealth. The 20 year study estimated that a happy marriage is worth an extra
$150,000 in the bank.

"This is the first time marriage has been measured economically and I was
certainly surprised by the amount," said economics professor Andrew Oswald of Warwick
University, who conducted the study.

The happiest people are in a successful marriage, the unhappiest in a failed marriage
and singles fall in between, he said. Having children has little or no effect on
happiness.

As a result of the study, scientists devised this complex mathematical formula to
measure happiness: r = h(u(y,z,t)) + e. Put another way, r is a function of h, u, y, z, t
plus e, where r is well-being, u is true well-being or utility, h is reported well-being;
y is real income, z is personal characteristics, t is time period and e is an error
factor.