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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2016‒10‒30
seven papers chosen by |
| By: | Mujcic, Redzo., (Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences, University of Queensland); Oswald, Andrew.J (Department of Economics, University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Objectives : To explore whether improvements in psychological well-being occur after increases in fruit and vegetable consumption.Methods : Longitudinal food diaries were examined on 12,000 randomly samples Australian adults over 2007, 2009, and 2013. The study examined fixed-effects regression equations on individuals' happiness and life satisfaction. It adjusted for a large set of other influences, including people's changing incomes and personal circumstances. Prospective analysis, Granger-causality tests, and instrumental-variable estimation were also done.Results : Increases in fruit and vegetable intake were predictive of increases in happiness and life satisfaction. Well-being improvements were of up to 0.24 life-satisfaction points (for an increase of 8 portions a day), which is equal size to the psychological gain of moving from unemployment to employment. Improvements occurred within 24 months. Conclusions : People's motivation to eat healthy food is weakened by the fact that physical-health benefits accrue decades later. This study offers a new possibility. Public-health policy could emphasise immediate well-being improvement from healthy eating. Policy Implications : Citizens could be shown longitudinal evidence that 'happiness' gains from healthy eating can occur quickly and many years before enhances physical health. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1128&r=hap |
| By: | Efstratia Arampatzi (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands); Martijn J. Burger (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands); Natallia A. Novik (Université de Strasbourg, France; Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | Can online social contacts replace the importance of real-life social connections in our pursuit of happiness? With the growing use of social network sites (SNSs), attention has been increasingly drawn to this topic. Our study empirically examines the effect of SNS use on happiness for different subgroups of young adults. More specifically, we examine whether the effect of SNSs on happiness is moderated by individual social capital, as measured in terms of frequency of social contacts and feelings of loneliness. Using Dutch data from the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences (LISS panel), we provide robust empirical evidence that there is, on average, no relationship between the amount of time spent on SNSs and happiness. However, we find a negative association between the numbers of hours spent on SNS and happiness for SNS users who feel socially disconnected and lonely. The results hold when we control for socio-demographic characteristics, trust, hours spent on other Internet sites and household income. Hence, SNSs are not a substitute for real-life social connections and, at most, complement them. |
| Keywords: | Subjective well-being; happiness; social network sites; individual social capital; social isolation; loneliness |
| JEL: | I31 L86 Z13 |
| Date: | 2016–10–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20160085&r=hap |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), PSE - Paris School of Economics); Akiko Kamesaka (Aoyama Gakuin University, ESRIN - European State Research Institute - ESA); Teruyuki Tamura (Sophia University - Sophia University) |
| Abstract: | It is commonly-believed that education is a good thing for individuals. Yet its correlation with subjective well-being is most often only weakly positive, or even negative, despite the many associated better individual-level outcomes We here square the circle using novel Japanese data on happiness aspirations. If reported happiness comes from a comparison of outcomes to aspirations, then any phenomenon raising both at the same time will have only a muted effect on reported well-being. We find that around half of the happiness effect of education is cancelled out by higher aspirations, and suggest a similar dampening effect for income. |
| Keywords: | Education,Satisfaction,Aspirations,Income |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01122749&r=hap |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), PSE - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Two behavioural explanations of the Easterlin Paradox are commonly advanced. The first appeals to social comparisons, whereby individual i compares her income (Yit) to a comparison income level earned by some other individual or group j (Y*jt). The second explanation is that of adaptation to higher levels of income. This is of the same nature, but here the individual’s current income is compared to her own income in the past (i.e. Yit is compared to Yit-τ, for some positive value or values of τ). The first of these explanations has attracted far more empirical attention than has the second. This is probably for data-availability reasons, as the investigation of the latter requires panel information. There is also a suspicion that large changes in Yit might be accompanied by a movement in some other variable that is also correlated with subjective well-being. We here review the empirical evidence that individuals do indeed compare current to past income, and then whether individuals adapt in general to aspects of their economic and social life. Last, we ask whether adaptation is in fact a viable explanation of the Easterlin Paradox. |
| Keywords: | Income,Adaptation,Easterlin Paradox |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01112725&r=hap |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), PSE - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | There is much discussion about using subjective well-being measures as inputs into a social welfare function, which will tell us how well societies are doing. But we have (many) more than one measure of subjective well-being. I here consider examples of the three of the main types (life satisfaction, affect, and eudaimonia) in three European surveys. These are quite strongly correlated with each other, and are correlated with explanatory variables in pretty much the same manner. I provide an overview of a recent literature which has compared how well different subjective well-being measures predict future behaviour, and address the issue of the temporality of well-being measures, and whether they should be analysed ordinally or cardinally. |
| Keywords: | Measurement,Predicting behaviour,Affect,Eudaimonia,Subjective well-being,Life satisfaction |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01134483&r=hap |
| By: | SEKIZAWA Yoichi; GOTO Yasuo; SO Mirai; NOGUCHI Remi; SHIMIZU Eiji |
| Abstract: | Recent economic studies maintain that people who expect an increase in their income and improved living conditions tend to be happier and mentally healthier at the moment. As a reverse causality, there are studies, especially in psychology, maintaining that mental health related emotions such as anxiety and depression lead to pessimistic future expectations and that happiness leads to optimistic future expectations. We examine this relationship through a questionnaire on the Japanese version of consumer confidence which contains questions regarding expectations of living condition and income in the future. We examine whether psychological interventions aimed at improving mental health would enhance consumer confidence and expectations of future income and living conditions. Such interventions include internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy and emotion-focused mindfulness. The results show that consumer confidence for the intervention groups did not improve significantly as compared with the control group. Through panel data analyses using the above mentioned two intervention studies and one observation study, we reconfirm that a higher level of consumer confidence is associated with lower levels of depression, anxiety, and negative affect, and with higher levels of positive affect. |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:16052&r=hap |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark (PSE - Paris School of Economics, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)); Sarah Flèche (Centre for Economic Performance - LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science); Claudia Senik (PSE - Paris School of Economics, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), UP4 - Université Paris-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | In spite of the great U-turn that saw income inequality rise in Western countries in the 1980s, happiness inequality has fallen in countries that have experienced income growth (but not in those that did not). Modern growth has reduced the share of both the “very unhappy” and the “perfectly happy”. Lower happiness inequality is found both between and within countries, and between and within individuals. Our cross-country regression results argue that the extension of various public goods helps to explain this greater happiness homogeneity. This new stylised fact arguably comes as a bonus to the Easterlin paradox, offering a somewhat brighter perspective for developing countries. |
| Keywords: | development,economic growth,inequality,Happiness,Easterlin paradox |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01080877&r=hap |