There are four main results. First,

There are four main results. First, consumption is significantly associated with SWB. Second,only 7 out of 14 consumption categories are responsible for this association. Personal care & clothing, dining out, leisure activities, sport, and spending on children’s education is positively related to SWB. Health care and care for children and elderly is negatively related to SWB.Third, consumption impacts SWB mainly through experiential and conspicuous purchases, albeit materialistic consumption in form of personal care and clothing has the strongest effect on SWB. Fourth, endogeneity tests and instrumental variable estimation allow for a causal interpretation of the results. Moreover, the findings are robust to variations in controls, estimation technique,categorization of consumption types, and whether consumption categories enter in level or ratio form.