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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2017‒04‒02
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Jan-Emmanuel De Neve; George Ward |
| Abstract: | Happiness is typically defined by how people experience and evaluate their lives as a whole. Since the majority of people spend much of their lives at work, it is critically important to gain a solid understanding of the role that employment and the workplace play in shaping happiness for individuals and communities around the world. In this paper, we focus largely on the role of work and employment in shaping people's happiness, and investigate how employment status, job type, and workplace characteristics relate to measures of subjective wellbeing. |
| Keywords: | subjective wellbeing, employment, job type, job characteristics |
| JEL: | I31 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1474&r=hap |
| By: | Clark, Andrew; Stancanelli, Elena |
| Abstract: | A small but significant literature concludes that terrorism impacts the economy, although the impact of mass-shooting has not yet been addressed by economists. We compare the economic effects of two tragedies: the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing and the 2012 Sandy Hook School Shooting. Fatal attacks are rare on any given day, and to estimate their effects we combine RDD with differences-in-differences. Using diaries of daily activities for a representative, random sample of Americans, we find a decline of over half an hour per day in average hours worked, while time spent accessing the media increased slightly. Active leisure fell after the BMB but increased after the SHSS. Daily data on emotional feelings reveal that subjective well-being fell dramatically after the BMB, and especially so for women, who are likely more averse to risk; but the findings are mixed for the SHSS. The latter induced a significant increase in meaningfulness, which was greatest for respondents with college education. We discuss these differences against economic, a priori, and drive conclusions that may be relevant for policy. |
| Keywords: | Well-being,Time Use,Terrorism |
| JEL: | I31 J21 J22 F52 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:26&r=hap |
| By: | Fausto Pacicco; Massimiliano Serati |
| Abstract: | The literature on the evaluation of how the well-being is measured is full of different contributions, ranging from the subjective measure, to the batch of indicators approach, to the provision of synthetic objective indexes. However, up to date, there is still a lack of such measures on micro-territorial level, i.e. on town-by-town basis. This paper, thanks to the statistic platform 100% Lombardia, aims to develop such indexes, named WIT (Well-being Index for Towns), using a cluster analysis, a Bayesian dynamic factor model and a Panel-FAVARX. |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:liu:liucec:307&r=hap |
| By: | Marco Le Moglie; Letizia Mencarini; Chiara Rapallini (Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the role of individual labor income as a moderator of parental subjective well-being trajectories before and after the first childbirth in Germany, a very low fertility country. Analyzing German Socioeconomic Panel Survey data, we found that income matters negatively for parental subjective well-being after childbirth, though with important differences by education and gender. In particular, among better educated parents, the richer see the arrival of a child more negatively. These findings contribute to the debate on the relationship between income and fertility adding information on how parents perceive the birth of a child beyond the strict financial cost of childbearing and raising. Results are discussed in terms of preferences among different groups of parents, costs of children, and work and family balance. Results are robust to potential endogeneity between income and childbirth, as well as for alternative measures of income. |
| Keywords: | First child, subjective well-being, individual income, Germany |
| JEL: | J1 J13 D1 I31 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2017_08.rdf&r=hap |