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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2010‒04‒11
eleven papers chosen by |
| By: | Becchetti Leonardo; Giachin Elena; Pelloni Alessandra |
| Abstract: | Social leisure is generally found to be positively correlated with life satisfaction in the empirical literature. We ask if this association captures a genuine causal effect of this good on subjective wellbeing by using panel data from the GSOEP. Fixed effect estimation techniques take care of some but not all of the endogeneity issues involved: we then have recourse to instrumental variables estimation. Our identification strategy exploits the change in social leisure brought about by retirement: more specifically we instrument social leisure with the ratio of retired in the sample by year and geographic location (East vs West Germany). Our results show a gendered difference in the impact of this ratio on social life. Our final message is that social leisure has a positive causal effect on life satisfaction, a finding with potentially important policy implications. |
| Keywords: | Life satisfaction, social leisure, retirement |
| JEL: | I30 D61 A11 A13 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ter:wpaper:0063&r=hap |
| By: | Denis Gerstorf; Nilam Ram; Jan Goebel; Jürgen Schupp; Ulman Lindenberger; Gert G. Wagner |
| Abstract: | Lifespan psychological research has long been interested in the contextual embeddedness of individual development. To examine if and how regional factors relate to between-person disparities in the progression of late-life well-being, we applied three-level growth curve models to 24-year longitudinal data from deceased participants of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (N = 3,427; age at death: 18 to 101 years). Results indicate steep declines in well-being with impending death, with some 8% of the between-person differences in both level and decline of well-being reflecting between-county differences. Exploratory analyses revealed that individuals living and dying in less affluent counties reported lower late-life well-being, controlling for key individual predictors including age at death, gender, education, and household income. The regional factors examined did not directly relate to well-being change, but were found to moderate (e.g., amplify) the disparities in change attributed to individual factors. Our results suggest that resource-poor counties provide relatively less fertile grounds for successful aging until the end of life and may serve to exacerbate disparities. We conclude that examinations of how individual and residential characteristics interact can further our understanding of individual psychological outcomes and suggest routes for future inquiry. |
| Keywords: | Neighborhoods; Selective mortality; successful aging; differential aging; psychosocial factors; well-being; longitudinal methods |
| JEL: | I12 J14 R23 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp287&r=hap |
| By: | Andrew Sharpe; Lars Osberg |
| Abstract: | This report presents new estimates of the Index of Economic Well-being (IEWB) and its four domains (consumption flows, stocks of wealth, economic equality and economic security) for Canada and the provinces for the 1981-2008 period. It finds that the IEWB advanced at a 1.20 per cent average annual growth rate over the period, below the 1.58 per cent growth for GDP per capita. Both the consumption and wealth domains experienced solid advances over the period, but these developments were offset by declines in the equality and economic security domains. The IEWB addresses most of the recommendations of the recently released Commission for the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (the Stiglitz report) on what aspects of economic reality an index of economic well-being should capture. |
| Keywords: | Living standards, quality of life, income, housing affordability, wealth, inequality, poverty, productivity, employment quality, net worth, income, disposable income, low income, labour market, economic security, employment, unemployment, Canada |
| JEL: | D63 D60 D30 H50 J30 R20 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sls:resrep:0910&r=hap |
| By: | Andrew Sharpe; Lars Osberg |
| Abstract: | This report presents new estimates of the Index of Economic Well-being (IEWB) and its four domains (consumption flows, stocks of wealth, economic equality, and economic security) for 14 OECD countries for the 1980-2007 period. It finds that in 2007 Norway had the highest level of economic well-being and Spain the lowest. Canada ranked ninth among the fourteen countries. Over the 1980-2007 period Denmark enjoyed the most rapid increase in economic well-being, and the Netherlands the slowest. In all 14 countries rate of advance of the IEWB was less than that of GDP per capita. The IEWB addresses most of the recommendations of the recently released report from the Commission for the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (the Stiglitz report) on what aspects of economic reality an index of economic well-being should capture. |
| Keywords: | Living standards, quality of life, income, housing affordability, wealth, inequality, poverty, productivity, employment quality, net worth, income, disposable income, low income, labour market, economic security, employment, unemployment, OECD |
| JEL: | D63 D60 D30 H50 J30 R20 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sls:resrep:0911&r=hap |
| By: | Andrew Sharpe |
| Abstract: | This report aims to accomplish three objectives: provide an assessment of Canada’s productivity performance; provide a synthesis of the productivity studies conducted by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS) and the McKinsey Global Institute; and develop a framework for unbundling slow productivity growth in Canada and the widening productivity gap with the United States. |
| Keywords: | productivity, labour productivity, output per hour, capital intensity, total factor productivity, Canada, United States, employment, innovation |
| JEL: | O13 O30 O51 J00 E23 D24 J08 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sls:resrep:1002&r=hap |
| By: | Stutzer, Alois (University of Basel); Frey, Bruno S. (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | Over the last decades, empirical research on subjective well-being in the social sciences has provided a major new stimulus to the discourse on individual happiness. Recently this research has also been linked to economics where reported subjective wellbeing is often taken as a proxy measure for individual welfare. In our review, we intend to provide an evaluation of where the economic research on happiness stands and of three directions it might develop. First, it offers new ways for testing the basic assumptions of the economic approach and for going about a new understanding of utility. Second, it provides a new possibility for the complementary testing of theories across fields in economics. Third, we inquire how the insights gained from the study of individual happiness in economics affect public policy. |
| Keywords: | economics, happiness, life satisfaction, survey data, income, public goods, unemployment |
| JEL: | A10 D60 H41 I31 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4850&r=hap |
| By: | Rowena Pecchenino (Economics,Finance and Accounting,National University of Ireland, Maynooth); |
| Abstract: | We make choices to achieve an objective. The objective is defined by an individual’s preferences. Subject to constraints, the objective is approached or achieved. Is this a good characterization of life? To answer this question we weaken one of the most basic assumptions of economics: individuals know their preferences. Instead we assume that an individual’s preferences are shaped and reshaped by his environment, experiences, expectations, and by exogenous events. In this model of individual self-discovery, preferences emerge, evolve, and change. These redefinitions change the future course of the individual’s life and reinterpret his past. They characterize a life lived. |
| Keywords: | Identity, Preferences, Choice, Life |
| JEL: | D01 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:may:mayecw:n205-10.pdf&r=hap |
| By: | Robert L. Wagmiller, Jr. (University at Buffalo, SUNY) |
| Abstract: | This working paper assesses the representativeness of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study sample. It compares the demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics of children and families participating in the Fragile Families Study to those of the children and families participating in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort of 2001 (ECLS-B). Although the characteristics of the children and families from the Fragile Families Study were generally similar to those of the children and families from the ECLS-B, there were important differences between the samples of these two studies. Families in the Fragile Families Study reported lower household incomes and parents reported lower earnings, fewer years of completed education, and were more likely to be African American and less likely to be non-Hispanic white. Differences between the Fragile Families Study and ECLS-B samples reflect the competing strengths and weaknesses of their respective sampling and data collection strategies. |
| Keywords: | Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, data collection strategies, social disadvantage |
| JEL: | C80 D02 D60 I32 |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:crcwel:1216&r=hap |
| By: | Kristin Turney (University of Michigan); Marcia J. Carlson (University of Wisconsin-Madison) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine the association between multi-partnered fertility (MPF) when parents have children with more than one partner and parents‘ mental health, including Major Depressive Disorder, heavy episodic drinking, and illicit drug use. Random-effects models provide some evidence that mothers‘ and fathers‘ MPF is linked to adverse mental health. However, these associations mostly disappear when we use the more conservative fixed-effects models that estimate changes in MPF as a function of changes in individual mental health. We also find evidence that social selection may account for the link between MPF and mental health, as depressed mothers and fathers, as well as mothers who report heavy episodic drinking, are more likely to have a child by a new partner. Ultimately, MPF and mental health may be reciprocally related and part of broader processes of social disadvantage. |
| Keywords: | depression, parenting, mental health, Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, social disadvantage |
| JEL: | C80 D02 D60 I32 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:crcwel:1218&r=hap |
| By: | Kristin Turney (University of Michigan) |
| Abstract: | Theoretical perspectives suggest a strong link between maternal mental health and parenting, which may facilitate the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage from depressed mothers to their children. In this paper, I extend prior research by using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,659). OLS and random-effects regression models document a strong link between maternal depression and the following parenting behaviors: neglect, psychological aggression, physical assault, engagement, and parenting stress. Fixed-effects models, however, show that maternal depression is only predictive of neglect and parenting stress, suggesting some negative consequences of depression is driven by variation across individuals or unobserved time-invariant characteristics. Further, the association between depression and neglect is weaker among married than unmarried mothers, providing some evidence that marriage is protective. |
| Keywords: | depression, parenting, mental health, Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, social disadvantage |
| JEL: | C80 D02 D60 I32 |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:crcwel:1217&r=hap |
| By: | Gaëlle Ferrant (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | The measurement of gender inequalities has become an important topic in the academic literature. First, appropriate indicators are needed to compare the relative situation of women in developing countries. Second, there is renewed attention given to the relationship between gender inequality and economic growth. Measuring gender inequalities contributes to knowing whether greater inequality promotes or hampers growth. This paper aims to develop a new methodology in order to build an aggregate index of gender inequalities in developing countries : the Gender Inequalities Index (GII). Using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), the GII aggregates different dimensions of gender inequalities in order to determine endogenously the weight of each variable. |
| Keywords: | Composite index, gender inequality, development economics. |
| JEL: | J16 O11 O57 C43 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:10017&r=hap |