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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2018‒01‒08
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Chris James (OECD); Marion Devaux (OECD); Franco Sassi (OECD) |
| Abstract: | In response to observed growing inequalities in income and other dimensions of well-being, including health, the OECD launched an initiative on Inclusive Growth in 2012. The objective was to help governments find ways to make economic growth more inclusive, so that it translates into meaningful gains in living standards across key dimensions of well-being and different socioeconomic groups. This paper links health to the overall inclusive growth agenda. It assesses the two-way relationship between health and socioeconomic factors. An empirical health production function is specified, using data from 35 OECD countries for the period 1990-2015. This is complemented by a review of the related empirical literature, as well as successful policies across OECD countries. |
| JEL: | I12 I14 I15 |
| Date: | 2017–12–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaad:103-en&r=hap |
| By: | Bibi, Chan; Audi, Marc; Ali, Amjad |
| Abstract: | This study has investigated the impact of gender inequality and environmental degradation on human well-being in the case of Pakistan from 1980 to 2014. Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test is used for stationarity of the variables. Autoregressive Distributed Lag model (ARDL) is used for co-integration among the variables of the model. The results show that gender inequality has a negative and significant impact on human well-being in Pakistan, while gender equality encourages human well-being. The calculated results show that there is positive but insignificant relationship with environmental degradation and human well-being in case of Pakistan. The estimated results show that economic misery has a negative and significant impact on human well-being in case of Pakistan. The estimated results show that economic growth has a positive and significant relationship with human well-being in Pakistan. On the basis of estimated results, it is concluded that gender equality, economic misery and economic growth are playing an important role in determining human well-being in Pakistan. Therefore, in order to improve human well-being, government must reduce gender inequality and economic misery while enhancing in parallel the economic growth. |
| Keywords: | Gender inequality, environmental degradation, Human Well-being |
| JEL: | J1 O10 Q0 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:83470&r=hap |
| By: | Emily Sama-Miller; Scott Baumgartner |
| Abstract: | Families on limited incomes face significant challenges navigating both low-wage employment or education and training programs and also finding good-quality child care. |
| Keywords: | evaluation, parents, self-sufficiency, children, well-being, programs, two-generation |
| JEL: | I |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:ecfd1399d07a416f860ef41d663c77b9&r=hap |
| By: | Michal Brzezinski (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the determinants of changes in unhappiness rate (low happiness, poverty of happiness, misery) over time. We focus on two post-socialist countries, Poland and Russia, which experienced radical social and economic transformations since the collapse of communism. Using data from the Polish Social Diagnosis project for 1991-2015 and data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey for 1994-2014, we investigate the microeconomic determinants of spectacular declines in unhappiness rates observed in the studied periods in Poland (a 56% fall in unhappiness) and Russia (a drop in the range from 46 to 75% depending on the unhappiness threshold chosen). Using a nonlinear decomposition methodology, we split the overall decreases in unhappiness rates into characteristics effects (related to the changing distribution of unhappiness-affecting factors) and coefficients effects (due to changing returns to the unhappiness-affecting factors). Our results show that unhappiness reductions in both countries were mostly driven by coefficient effects, while characteristics played a smaller, but a non-negligible role. In both countries, income growth accounted for about 15% of the total unhappiness reduction. In Russia, this effect was doubled by growing return to income as unhappiness-protecting factor, while in Poland income has been losing protecting power and in overall income had an unhappiness-increasing effect. For Russia, another strong unhappiness-protecting factor was return to employment. In case of Poland, good self-rated health and having children explains additional 15-20% of the unhappiness reduction. |
| Keywords: | Happiness, unhappiness, life satisfaction, decomposition, determinants, Poland, Russia |
| JEL: | I31 J17 J21 P36 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2017-27&r=hap |