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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2008‒09‒29
three papers chosen by |
| By: | Rojas, Mariano |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a subjective wellbeing approach to study the role of household arrangements on the health satisfaction of an individual. It also studies the impact of household arrangements on health satisfaction across different income groups, by contrasting two main theories of the family: the altruistic/communitarian theory, which emphasizes altruism within the family, implies that the within-the-household allocation of relevant health satisfaction resources leads towards an egalitarian distribution of health satisfaction, and second, the cooperative bargaining theory according to which the family emerges as the cooperative equilibrium outcome from the unilateral interests of each household member. Thus, each household member takes advantage of their bargaining power to attain an equilibrium that favours their personal interests. According to the latter approach, the intra-household allocation of relevant health satisfaction resources leads to a distribution of health satisfaction that closely follows the distribution of bargaining power. ... |
| Keywords: | health, health satisfaction, subjective wellbeing, intra-household arrangements, Mexico |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:rp2008-57&r=hap |
| By: | Barbara Ferrari; Luigi Mittone; Marco Tecilla |
| Abstract: | This research investigates whether an equity improvement within retirement-systems domain may positively influence demography, people’s happiness and their financial conditions. In particular, a fertility-boosting policy has been tested, acting on the contributory rate. This project has been carried out by using software simulation and with specific Agent-based Computational Economics (ACE) methodology. Two virtual worlds have been created, in order to try to reproduce Italian society. In the first model, (W1), vertical equity has been improved, while in the second one, (W2), it is has not. Five further variants of these two worlds have been produced by altering some parameters, in order to test our hypothesis through several simulations. The research outcomes prove that an equity improvement can positively influence demographic trends, can increase the level of happiness in the society, and can grant a more homogeneous welfare redistribution. |
| Keywords: | Retirement systems, demography, happiness, wealth distribution, equity, software simulation, Agent Based Computational Economics |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpce:0808&r=hap |
| By: | Mary C. Daly; Daniel J. Wilson |
| Abstract: | The use of subjective well-being (SWB) data for investigating the nature of individual preferences has increased tremendously in recent years. There has been much debate about the cross-sectional and timeseries patterns found in these data, particularly with respect to the relationship between SWB and relative status. Part of this debate concerns how well SWB data measures true utility or preferences. In a recent paper, Daly, Wilson, and Johnson (2007) propose using data on suicide as a revealed preference (outcome-based) measure of well-being and find strong evidence that reference-group income negatively affects suicide risk. In this paper, we compare and contrast the empirical patterns of SWB and suicide data. We find that the two have very little in common in aggregate data (time series and cross-sectional), but have a strikingly strong relationship in terms of their determinants in individual-level, multivariate regressions. ; This latter result cross-validates suicide and SWB micro data as useful and complementary indicators of latent utility. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedfwp:2008-19&r=hap |