New Economics Papers
on Economics of Happiness
Issue of 2011‒07‒27
six papers chosen by



  1. Impact of Cultural Diversity on Wages and Job Satisfaction in England By Simonetta Longhi
  2. The Effect of the Consumption of the Cultural Services on the Quality of Life By Ercsey, Ida
  3. Monitoring Child Well-being in the European Union: Measuring cumulative deprivation By Geranda Notten; Keetie Roelen; UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre
  4. Acute Multidimensional Poverty: A New Index for Developing Countries By Alkire, Sabina; Santos, Maria Emma
  5. Religiosity as a determinant of happiness By Opfinger, Matthias; Grundlach, Erich
  6. Early Maternal Employment and Family Wellbeing By Pinka Chatterji; Sara Markowitz; Jeanne Brooks-Gunn

  1. By: Simonetta Longhi (Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex and IZA)
    Abstract: This paper combines individual data from the British Household Panel Survey and yearly population estimates for England to analyse the impact of cultural diversity on individual wages and on different aspects of job satisfaction. Do people living in more diverse areas have higher wages and job satisfaction after controlling for other observable characteristics? The results show that cultural diversity is positively associated with wages, but only when cross-section data are used. Panel data estimations show that there is no impact of diversity. Using instrumental variables to account for endogeneity also show that diversity has no impact.
    Keywords: Cultural Diversity, Wages, Job Satisfaction.
    JEL: J28 J31
    Date: 2011–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2011010&r=hap
  2. By: Ercsey, Ida
    Abstract: The objective of this article is to explore how the cultural participation influences on the evaluation of the consumers' quality of life. First, we study the concept of the quality of life comparing two approaches to the evaluation of the individual subjective well-being. We carried out a qualitative study six mini-focus group interviews were conducted among adult consumers in a Hungarian Region. Based on our results we explored the main components of the quality of life by subjective evaluation. The consumers make their perception to the culture on several ranges, and stages. Finally, we give the frame to the quantitative research.
    Keywords: focus group interview; cultural services; well being; quality of life
    Date: 2011
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsu:apasro:322&r=hap
  3. By: Geranda Notten; Keetie Roelen; UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre
    Abstract: This paper describes and empirically tests a number of candidate measures of cumulative deprivation to monitor child well-being in the EU.The authors posit that the ideal measure should be sensitive to changes in the depth of cumulative deprivation and, given its broad use in the policy community, has an intuitive interpretation. Using the 2007 wave of the EU-SILC data, the authors constructed several measures of cumulative deprivation from a set of 13 deprivation indicators for Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
    Keywords: child poverty; poverty reduction;
    JEL: C0 C12
    Date: 2011
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:inwopa:inwopa635&r=hap
  4. By: Alkire, Sabina; Santos, Maria Emma
    Abstract: This paper presents a new Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for 104 developing countries. It is the first time multidimensional poverty is estimated using micro datasets (household surveys) for such a large number of countries which cover about 78 percent of the world's population. The MPI has the mathematical structure of one of the Alkire and Foster poverty multidimensional measures and it is composed of ten indicators corresponding to same three dimensions as the Human Development Index: Education, Health and Standard of Living. The MPI captures a set of direct deprivations that batter a person at the same time. This tool could be used to target the poorest, track the Millennium Development Goals, and design policies that directly address the interlocking deprivations poor people experience. This paper presents the methodology and components in the MPI, describes main results, and shares basic robustness tests. --
    Keywords: Poverty Measurement,Multidimensional Poverty,Capability Approach,Multidimensional Welfare,Human Development,HDI,HPI
    JEL: I3 I32 D63 O1
    Date: 2011
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec11:3&r=hap
  5. By: Opfinger, Matthias; Grundlach, Erich
    Abstract: We find a U-shaped relation between happiness and religiosity in cross-country panel data after controlling for income levels. At a given level of income, the same level of happiness can be reached with high and low levels of religiosity, but not with intermediate levels. A rise in income causes an increase in happiness along with a decline of religiosity. Our interpretation of the empirical results is that the indifference curves for religiosity and other commodities of the utility function are hump-shaped. --
    Keywords: Happiness,religiosity,utility function,long-run development
    JEL: I31 Z12 O11
    Date: 2011
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gdec11:63&r=hap
  6. By: Pinka Chatterji; Sara Markowitz; Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
    Abstract: This study uses longitudinal data from the NICHD Study on Early Child Care (SECC) to examine the effects of maternal employment on family well-being, measured by maternal mental and overall health, parenting stress, and parenting quality. First, we estimate the effects of maternal employment on these outcomes measured when children are 6 months old. Next, we use dynamic panel data models to examine the effects of maternal employment on family outcomes during the first 4.5 years of children’s lives. Among mothers of six month old infants, maternal work hours are positively associated with depressive symptoms and self-reported parenting stress, and negatively associated with self-rated overall health among mothers. Compared to mothers who are on leave 3 months after childbirth, mothers who are working full-time score 22 percent higher on the CES-D scale of depressive symptoms. However, maternal employment is not associated with the quality of parenting at 6 months, based on trained assessors’ observations of maternal sensitivity. Moreover, during the first 4.5 years of life as a whole, we find only weak evidence that maternal work hours are associated with maternal health, and no evidence that maternal employment is associated with parenting stress and quality. We find that unobserved heterogeneity is an important factor in modeling family outcomes.
    JEL: I1
    Date: 2011–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17212&r=hap

General information on the NEP project can be found at https://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.