Fourth, our data contain measures of social interactions and correlated psychosocial and personality characteristics (e.g., depressive symptoms, loneliness) that allow us to test the key hypothesis that spending can increase happiness via the mechanism of strengthened social bonds. We also include controls for personality characteristics (e.g., neuroticism) that may affect expenditure and happiness. Including such controls allows us to rule out some potential sources of unobserved heterogeneity. We know of no such study that uses as high-quality data that answers the question we pose here.