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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2011‒08‒02
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Yoshiro Tsutsui; Fumio Ohtake |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether the level of happiness and integrated process of changes in happiness are the same. Using the daily data of two waves of four and six months each, we found that the level of happiness is stationary, whereas the integrated process of changes is non-stationary with a rising trend, implying that they are different series. An examination of the causes of the difference indicated that although adaptation completely influences the level of happiness, it only partially influences the change in happiness. This may be because the latter is based on a comparison between today and yesterday. |
| Date: | 2011–07–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:0813&r=hap |
| By: | Taylor, Mark P.; Jenkins, Stephen P.; Sacker, Amanda |
| Abstract: | We examine whether financial capability has impacts on psychological health independent of income and financial resources more generally using a nationally representative survey. British Household Panel Survey data are used to construct a measure of financial capability, which we relate to respondents psychological health using the 12-item General Health Questionnaire. We find that financial capability has significant and substantial effects on psychological health over and above those associated with income and material wellbeing more generally. The sizes of these impacts are considerably larger than those associated with changes in household income. Furthermore having low financial capability exacerbates the psychological costs associated with unemployment and divorce. |
| Date: | 2011–07–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2011-18&r=hap |
| By: | Thomas Masterson; Ajit Zacharias; Selcuk Eren; Edward Wolff |
| Abstract: | We construct estimates of the Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being for France for the years 1989 and 2000. We also estimate the standard measure of disposable cash income (DI) from the same data sources. We analyze overall trends in the level and distribution of household well-being using both measures for France as a whole and for subgroups of the French population. The average French household experienced a slower rate of growth in LIMEW than DI over the period. A substantial portion of the growth in well-being for the middle quintile was a result of increases in net government expenditures and income from wealth. We also found that the well-being of families headed by single females relative to married couples deteriorated much more, while the well-being of households headed by the elderly relative to households headed by the nonelderly improved much more than indicated by the standard measure of disposable income. The conventional measure indicates that a steep decline in economic inequality took place between 1989 and 2000, while our measure indicates no such change. We argue that these outcomes can be traced to the difference in the treatment of the role of wealth in shaping economic inequality. Our measure also indicates that, on balance, government expenditures and taxes did not have an inequality-reducing effect in France for both years. This is, again, contrary to conventional wisdom. |
| Keywords: | Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-being (LIMEW); France; Economic Well-Being; Economic Inequality; Household Income Measures |
| JEL: | D31 D63 P17 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_679&r=hap |
| By: | Andrew Sharpe; Alexander Murray; Benjamin Evans; Elspeth Hazell |
| Abstract: | This report presents estimates of the Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being (LIMEW) for a representative sample of Canadian households in 1999 and 2005. The results indicate that there was only modest growth in the average Canadian household’s total command over economic resources in the six years between 1999 and 2005. Although inequality in economic well-being increased slightly over the 1999–2005 period, the LIMEW was more equally distributed across Canadian households than more common income measures (such as after-tax income) in both 1999 and 2005. The median household’s economic well-being was lower in Canada than in the United States in both years. |
| Keywords: | Well-being, Inequality, Income, Wealth, Government Expenditure, Household Production, LIMEW, (Canada) |
| JEL: | D13 D31 D63 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_680&r=hap |
| By: | Sabatini, Fabio |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the first empirical investigation into the effect of e-shopping on subjective well-being. The analysis relies on an Italian nationally and regionally representative dataset from Italy (n = 4,130) drawn from the 2008 wave of the Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) carried out by the Bank of Italy. Probit, OLS regressions and instrumental variables estimates show that e-shopping is strongly and positively associated with subjective well-being. |
| Keywords: | happiness; subjective well-being; Internet; business-to-consumer e-commerce; B2C; e-shopping; instrumental variables; Italy |
| JEL: | I31 E2 Z19 L86 |
| Date: | 2011–07–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:32393&r=hap |