nep-hap New Economics Papers
on Economics of Happiness
Issue of 2016‒05‒14
four papers chosen by



  1. Entrepreneurs and Freelancers: Are They Time and Income Multidimensional Poor? The German Case By Merz, Joachim; Rathjen, Tim
  2. "De gustibus errari (pot)est": utility misprediction, preferences for well-being and life By Becchetti, Leonardo; Conzo, Pierluigi
  3. Prospettive di domanda ed offerta di benessere multidimensionale By De Rosa, Dalila; Semplici, Lorenzo
  4. Adolescents at Risk: Psychosomatic health complaints, low life satisfaction, excessive sugar consumption and their relationship with cumulative risks By Zlata Bruckauf; Tania Gaspar; Sophie D. Walsh; UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre

  1. By: Merz, Joachim (Leuphana University Lüneburg); Rathjen, Tim (Leuphana University Lüneburg)
    Abstract: Entrepreneurs and freelancers, the self-employed, commonly are characterized as not only to be relatively rich in income but also as to be rich in time because of their time-sovereignty in principle. Our introducing study scrutinises these results and notions about the well-being situation of self-employed persons not only by asking about traditional single income poverty but also by considering time poverty within the framework of a new interdependent multidimensional (IMD) poverty concept. The German Socio-economic panel with satisfaction data serves as the data base for the population wide evaluation of the substitution/ compensation between genuine, personal leisure time and income. The available detailed Time Use Surveys of 1991/92 and 2001/2 of the Federal Statistics Office provide the data to quantify the multidimensional poverty in all the IMD poverty regimes. Important result: self-employed with regard to single income poverty, single time poverty and interdependent multidimensional time and income poverty in both years are much more affected by time and income poverty than all other active persons defining the working poor. A significant proportion of non-income-poor but time poor of the active population are not able to compensate their time deficit even by an above poverty income. These people are neglected so far within the poverty and well-being discussion, the discussion about the "working poor" and in the discussion about time squeeze and time pressure in general and in particular for the self-employed as entrepreneurs and freelancers.
    Keywords: liberal professions (Freie Berufe), entrepreneurs, self-employed, interdependent multidimensional time and income poverty, time and income substitution, extended economic well-being, satisfaction/happiness, CES welfare function estimation, working poor, German Socio-Economic Panel, German Time Use Surveys 1991/02 and 2001/02
    JEL: D31 D13 J22
    Date: 2016–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9912&r=hap
  2. By: Becchetti, Leonardo (Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit); Conzo, Pierluigi (Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit)
    Abstract: The life satisfaction literature generally focuses on how life events affect subjective well-being. Through a contingent valuation survey we test whether well-being preferences have significant impact on life satisfaction. A sample of respondents is asked to simulate a policymaker decision consisting in allocating scarce financial resources among 11 well-being domains. Consistently with the utility misprediction hypothesis, we find that the willingness to invest more in the economic well-being domain is negatively correlated with life satisfaction. Our findings are shown to be robust when we account for unobservables related to economic fragility and non-random sample selection. Reverse causality and omitted variable bias are controlled for with instrumental variables and a sensitivity analysis on departures from exogeneity assumptions. Subsample estimates document that the less educated are more affected by the problem.
    Keywords: life satisfaction; well-being preferences; utility misprediction; subjective well-being
    JEL: A13 D64 H50 I31
    Date: 2014–07–16
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:aiccon:2014_137&r=hap
  3. By: De Rosa, Dalila (Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit); Semplici, Lorenzo (Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit)
    Abstract: The paper is aimed at proposing a different perspective over the traditional CSR approach. In particular the idea is to analyze the corporate social and environmental value production, beyond the economic one, through the lens of the Italian BES (Equitable and Sustainable Well-being). The idea finds its roots in the need of integration between two sides of the same coin: on one hand the well-being measurement and the beyond GDP debate, and on the other the CSR measurement frameworks. As a matter of fact, in order to think a business no longer based on the sole economic dimension but on the multidimensionality of well-being, firms supply and consumers demand would be organized according to the same multidensional paradigm: in this way a new shared language can be drawn. To this purpose we have remapped the standard ISAR, GRI and ISTAT-CSR ManagerNetwork indicators over the common denominator of the BES dimensions. The investigation allowed us to shed a light over possible RSI weaknesses in order to build up a theoretical basis for the well-being measurement on both the demand (individual well-being) and supply side (corporate well-being production).
    Keywords: Multidimensional Well-being; Corporate Social Responsibility; BES; Sustainability
    JEL: I31 P13
    Date: 2016–04–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:aiccon:2016_147&r=hap
  4. By: Zlata Bruckauf; Tania Gaspar; Sophie D. Walsh; UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre
    Abstract: Adolescence is a time of transitions when experimentation, risk taking and active peer interactions can be viewed as a part of the development process. Yet, for some groups of young people with reported poor psychosomatic health, low life satisfaction or unhealthy eating habits these experiences may be different. Empirical evidence is limited for recognising the overlapping and cumulative risks of adolescents’ health disadvantage and multiple externalized risk behaviours and outcomes (smoking, drinking, binge drinking, regular fighting, injuries and bullying). Drawing on the most recent 2013/2014 data of the Health Behaviour of School Children (HBSC) study, this paper examines the risks of individual and cumulative risks (three or more types) associated with being in the bottom group of psychosomatic health complaints, life satisfaction and unhealthy eating (excessive sugar consumption) across 29 countries.
    Keywords: adolescent health; health education; socio-economic status;
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:inwopa:inwopa844&r=hap

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