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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2011‒02‒12
eight papers chosen by |
| By: | Cahit Guven (Deakin University - Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research); Claudia Senik (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, Université Paris-Sorbonne - Ministère de l'Education nationale, de l'Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche); Holger Stichnoth (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung - ZEW) |
| Abstract: | This paper asks whether a gap in spouses' subjective happiness matters per se, i.e. whether it predicts divorce. We use three large panel surveys to explore this question. Controlling for the life satisfaction levels of spouses, we find that a larger happiness gap, even in the first year of marriage, increases the likelihood of a future separation. This association even holds for couples where both spouses are identified as being better off than in their outside option. We interpret this observation as reflecting a concern for relative utility. To the best of our knowledge, this effect has not been taken into account by any existing economic models of the household. The relationship between happiness gaps and divorce is consistent with the fact that couples who are unable to transfer utility are more at risk than others. It is also possible that assortative mating by happiness baseline level reduces the risk of separation. However, assortative mating cannot entirely explain the finding, as a widening of the happiness gap over time increases the risk of separation. We also uncover an asymmetry in the effect of happiness gaps: couples are more likely to break-up when the difference in life satisfaction is unfavorable to the woman. De facto, divorces appear to be initiated predominantly by women who are less happy than their husband. This asymmetry suggests that the effect of happiness gaps is grounded on motives of relative deprivation, rather than on a preference for equal happiness. The presence of this new argument in spouses' utility is likely to modify their optimal behavior, e.g. in terms of labor supply. It should also be taken into account for public policy measures concerning gender-based labor incentives. |
| Keywords: | divorce ; happiness ; comparisons ; panel ; households, marriage |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00555427&r=hap |
| By: | Tanika Chakraborty |
| Abstract: | We construct a new, direct measure of female autonomy in household decision-making by creating an index from the principal components of a variety of household variables on which mother of a child takes decision. We then examine its impacts on her child's secondary education in Mexico and find that the children of Mexican mothers with greater autonomy in domestic decision making have higher enrolment in and lower probability of dropping out of secondary school. We use the relative proximity of spousal parents as instruments for relative autonomy to ameliorate the potential endogeneity between autonomy and welfare outcomes. We argue that omitted variables that may drive education and autonomy are likely to be uncorrelated with the ones driving location choice of families given the migration patterns in Mexico. However, the positive autonomy effect is weaker and non-existent for older children and for girls suggesting that gender-directed conditional cash transfer policies may not necessarily hasten educational and gender transition in the process of development. |
| Keywords: | Female Empowerment, Principal Component, Education, Instrumental Variable |
| JEL: | D1 I2 J1 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1102&r=hap |
| By: | Cinzia Di Novi (Dipartimento di Politiche Pubbliche e Scelte Collettive, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Italy) |
| Abstract: | Limited literature has been published on the association between environmental health indicators, life-style habits and ambient air pollution. We have examined the association of asthma prevalence and the amount of health investment with daily mean concentrations of particulate matter (PM) with a mass median aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 mm (PM25) in 16 metropolitan areas in U.S. using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (2001) data in conjunction with the Air Quality System data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency. A multivariate probit approach has been used to estimate recursive systems of equations for environmental health outcome and life-styles. A piecewise linear relationship has been postulated to describe the association between health outcome, health investment and pollution. We have assumed one change point at AQI value of 100 which corresponds to the US national air quality standard. The most interesting result concerns the influence of pollution on health-improving life-style choices: below a specified threshold concentration (AQI=100) a positive linear association exists between exposure to PM25 and health investments; above the threshold the association becomes negative. Hence, only if ambient pollution is in the `satisfactory range' (AQI level at or below 100), individuals will have incentive to invest in health. |
| Keywords: | : health production, multivariate probit, spline, life-style, fine particulate, asthma |
| JEL: | I12 C31 D13 D81 Q25 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gea:wpaper:1/2011&r=hap |
| By: | Grund, Christian (University of Würzburg); Schmitt, Andreas (University of Würzburg) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effects of works councils on employees’ wages and job satisfaction in general and for subgroups with respect to sex and occupational status. Making use of a German representative sample of employees, we find that employees, who move to a firm with a works council, report increases in job satisfaction, but do not receive particular wage increases. Especially the job satisfaction of female employees is affected by a change in works council status. However, we do not find support for the hypothesis that the introduction of a works council itself increases wages or job satisfaction for the employees staying at the firm. |
| Keywords: | job satisfaction, wages, works councils |
| JEL: | M5 J30 J53 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5464&r=hap |
| By: | Martin Binder; Alex Coad |
| Abstract: | Despite lower incomes, the self-employed consistently report higher satisfaction with their jobs. But are self-employed individuals also happier, more satisfied with their lives as a whole? High job satisfaction might cause them to neglect other important domains of life, such that the fulfilling job crowds out other pleasures, leaving the individual on the whole not happier than others. Moreover, self-employment is often chosen to escape unemployment, not for the associated autonomy that seems to account for the high job satisfaction. We apply matching estimators that allow us to better take into account the above-mentioned considerations and construct an appropriate control group. Using the BHPS data set that comprises a large nationally representative sample of the British populace, we find that individuals who move from regular employment into self-employment experience an increase in life satisfaction (up to two years later), while individuals moving from unemployment to self-employment are not more satisfied than their counterparts moving from unemployment to regular employment. We argue that these groups correspond to "opportunity" and "necessity" entrepreneurship, respectively. These findings are robust with regard to different measures of subjective well-being as well as choice of matching variables, and also robustness exercises involving "simulated confounders". |
| Keywords: | self-employment, happiness, matching estimators, unemployment, BHPS, necessity entrepreneurship Length 26 pages |
| JEL: | C21 J24 J28 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:evopap:2010-20&r=hap |
| By: | Bichaka Fayissa; Shah Danyal; J.S. Butler |
| Abstract: | Using the NLSY79 panel data set from 1979-2006 for a cross-section of 12,686 individuals, this paper investigates the effect of educational attainment on the health status of an individual as measured by “the inability to work for health reasons.” The present study bridges the gap in the literature by using the fixed-effects model, random-effects model, between-effects, and the Arellano-Bond dynamic model to analyze the impact of education on health status. We use these alternative models to control unobserved heterogeneity. Educational attainment has a statistically significant and positive effect on the quality of an individual’s health status. |
| Keywords: | Education, Health Status, Fixed-Effects, Random-Effects, Between-Effects, Arellano-Bond Model |
| JEL: | I12 I20 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mts:wpaper:201101&r=hap |
| By: | James P. Smith; Yan Shen; John Strauss; Zhe Yang; Yaohui Zhao |
| Abstract: | In this paper, the authors model the consequences of childhood health on adult health and socioeconomic status outcomes in China using a new sample of middle aged and older Chinese respondents. Modeled after the American Health and Retirement Survey (HRS), the CHARLS Pilot survey respondents are forty-five years and older in two quite distinct provinces- Zhejiang, a high growth industrialized province on the East Coast and Gansu, a largely agricultural and poor province in the West. Childhood health in CHARLS relies on two measures that proxy for different dimensions of health during the childhood years. The first is a retrospective self-evaluation using a standard five-point scale (excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor) of general state of one's health when one was less than 16 years old. The second is adult height often thought to be a good measure of levels of nutrition during early childhood and the prenatal period. They relate both these childhood health measures to adult health and SES outcomes during the adult years. They find strong effects of childhood health on adult health outcomes particularly among Chinese women and strong effects on adult BMI particularly for Chinese men. |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ran:wpaper:809&r=hap |
| By: | Winters, John V |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the effects of the local human capital level and the presence of higher education institutions on the quality of life in U.S. metropolitan areas. The local human capital level is measured by the share of adults with a college degree, and the relative importance of higher education institutions is measured by the share of the population enrolled in college. This paper finds that quality of life is positively affected by both the local human capital level and the relative importance of higher education institutions. Furthermore, these effects persist when these two measures are considered simultaneously, even though the two are highly correlated. That is the human capital stock and higher education institutions have a shared effect and also separate effects on quality of life. |
| Keywords: | human capital; higher education; college towns; quality of life; amenities |
| JEL: | R13 J31 R23 |
| Date: | 2011–01–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:28484&r=hap |