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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2017‒07‒30
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Alessandro Bucciol (Department of Economics, University of Verona, Italy); Simona Cicognani (Department of Economics, University of Verona, Italy; The Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis); Luca Zarri (Department of Economics, University of Verona, Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that individuals' sociability plays an important role in explaining where individuals locate themselves in the social ladder, also when their objective location within society (measured through their income, wealth and education) is considered. Using data from the US Health and Retirement Study, we assess individuals' sociability through the number and quality of friendships and attitude towards others (support, social cohesion, reciprocity, cynical hostility, loneliness and discrimination). We find subjective social status to correlate positively with social contact, reciprocity and social cohesion. Individuals with higher life satisfaction seem disconnected from objective elements when subjectively evaluating their social status. |
| Keywords: | Subjective social status, Objectively measured social status, Sociability, Personality traits |
| JEL: | I31 Z13 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:17-15&r=hap |
| By: | Kamal KASMAOUI; Othmane BOURHABA |
| Abstract: | The present study examines empirically the relationship between Happiness and public spending. We use a panel data from 2006 to 2015 for about 132 countries. We first estimated a Pooled, fixed effect and finally a GMM model to deal with the endogeneity problem. Our main findings suggest, first, that high levels of public expenditure are associated with greater Happiness around the world. Second, as expected, social support, Healthy life expectancy, Freedom to make life choices and confidence in national government contribute significantly to Happiness. |
| Keywords: | Happiness, Public choice, Government spending, GMM |
| JEL: | H11 H40 H50 I31 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tac:wpaper:2016-2017_8&r=hap |
| By: | Hussain, M. Azhar (Department of Social Sciences and Business); Siersbæk, Nikolaj (Department of Business and Economics); Østerdal, Lars Peter (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | How did the financial crisis affect population welfare in EU member states in key dimensions such as income, health, and education? Using EU-SILC data, we seek to answer this question by way of first order dominance comparisons between countries and over time. The novel feature of our study is that we perform welfare comparisons on the basis of multi-level multidimensional ordinal data. We find that the countries most often dominated are southern and eastern European member states, and the dominant countries are mostly northern and western European member states. However, for most country comparisons, there is no dominance relationship. Moreover, only a few member states have experienced a temporal dominance improvement in welfare, and no member states have experienced a dominance deterioration. |
| Keywords: | First order dominance; Multidimensional well-being; Multi-level indicators; EU-SILC |
| JEL: | I31 O52 |
| Date: | 2017–07–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sdueko:2017_010&r=hap |
| By: | Sarah Abdul Rahim (Institute of Business Administration); Asma Hyder (Institute of Business Administration); Qazi Masood Ahmed (Institute of Business Administartion) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of governance on happiness of residents in a developing society. Two major aspects of governance, i.e., democratic and technical governance are used for this analysis. Governance and happiness are measured on the basis of citizen?s perceptions through a survey from all over the country. We find a significant relationship between self perceived governance and happiness. Our estimates suggest that improvement in democratic and technical governance will increase happiness of its citizens. Results carry important implications for a developing country like Pakistan to improve the government institutions and their functioning in order to increase their effectiveness. |
| Keywords: | Governance, Happiness, Democratic, Technical |
| JEL: | D02 D00 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iefpro:4807773&r=hap |