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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2019‒05‒27
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Gunes Gokmen (New Economic School and the Center for the Study of Diversity and Social Interactions, Moscow); Evgeny Yakovlev (New Economic School, Moscow) |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the effect of the Russo-Georgian conflict of 2008 on the well-being of minorities in Russia. Using the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS), we first provide evidence that, on impact, the well-being of Georgian nationals suffered negatively from the conflict of 2008, both in comparison to their own well-being across time and to the well-being of the Russian majority. We also show that this negative effect of conflict does not have a long-term legacy that goes beyond 2008. Additionally, we demonstrate that the conflict has no direct effect on the livelihoods or the labor market outcomes of Georgian nationals. Therefore, we attribute the negative effect of conflict on well-being to more indirect channels such as fear, altruism, or sympathy. We also analyze the spillover effects of the Russo-Georgian conflict on other minorities that live in Russia. We find that while the well-being of migrant minorities who have recently moved to Russia is negatively affected, there is no effect on local minorities who have been living in Russia for at least ten years. |
| Keywords: | Well-being, happiness, transition, conflict, minorities |
| JEL: | I31 N44 P2 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:abo:neswpt:w0243&r=all |
| By: | Fredrik Carlsen; Stefan Leknes (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to explain why large cities tend to score low on indices of happiness/life satisfaction, while at the same time experiencing population growth. Using Norwegian survey and register data, we show that different population segments are behind these seemingly contradictory attributes of large cities. A minority of highly mobile citizens are satisfied with life in Norway’s biggest city, Oslo, and exhibits positive net in-migration to the city. A majority of less mobile groups are dissatisfied and tend to move out of Oslo, but these flows are too small to determine the overall migration pattern. Our results indicate that the Rosen-Roback framework for analysis of regional quality of life, which builds on the assumption of perfect mobility, is appropriate only for the most mobile segments of the population. |
| Keywords: | Happiness; life satisfaction; quality of life; big cities; mobility |
| JEL: | J17 R23 I31 |
| Date: | 2019–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:907&r=all |
| By: | Ravi Prakash (MNNIT Allahabad - Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad); Pulkit Garg (National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a novel approach to measure the human development, progress and growth of any country. The authors have developed an alternative index to the conventional 'HDI', named as 'Composite Development Index (CDI)' and have also presented an original approach to evaluate it quantitatively. The CDI integrates all the three (social, economic and environmental) aspects of sustainable development, along with peace and happiness. As proposed, the CDI is based on four parameters, i.e. Inequality adjusted HDI (IHDI), Scaled Green Index, Scaled Peace Index and Scaled Happiness Index, evaluated from globally accepted standard databases. Hence, the CDI is much more comprehensive and rational than the conventional HDI or GDP. The CDI values have been evaluated quantitatively for 126 countries of the world. Further, comparative assessment of the CDI has been done with the HDI for all the 126 nations. The results obtained have been startling as no country was even able to have a CDI score of 0.8 on a scale of 0.1 to 1. Switzerland had the highest CDI of 0.767. A country like Norway with the highest HDI of 0.953 had a CDI of only 0.742. On the other hand, countries like Costa Rica, Romania and Uruguay are in the top 20 nations in the CDI Ranking, much ahead of the countries like United Kingdom, France, and USA. The CDI can act as a single point of reference for policy-makers, governments and other development agencies, as it presents a consolidated picture of a country's development. Future course of action on the basis of the concept of CDI are also proposed. It can be concluded that efforts to have a high CDI (in comparison to a high GDP or HDI only) will pave the way forward for sustainable development and holistic progress for all the countries of the world. JEL Classifications: 011, 015 Additional disciplines (besides field of economics reflected in JEL classifications): sociology; ecology and environment. |
| Keywords: | happiness,Human Development Index (HDI),peace,ecological footprint,Composite Development Index |
| Date: | 2019–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02115225&r=all |
| By: | Vittorio Bilò (Dipartimento di Matematica Ennio De Giorgi - Università del Salento, Università del Salento [Lecce]); Angelo Fanelli (CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR1 - Université de Rennes 1 - UNIV-RENNES - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Michele Flammini (DISIM - Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Scienza dell'Informazione e Matematica - UNIVAQ.IT - Università degli Studi dell'Aquila [L'Aquila], UNIVAQ - University of L'Aquila [Italy]); Gianpiero Monaco (DI - Dipartimento di Informatica [Italy] - UNIVAQ.IT - Università degli Studi dell'Aquila [L'Aquila]); Luca Moscardelli (Department of Economic Studies - University of Chieti-Pescara, Dipartimento di Scienze - Universita di Chieti-Pescara - Universita' di Chieti-Pescara) |
| Abstract: | We consider fractional hedonic games, a subclass of coalition formation games that can be succinctly modeled by means of a graph in which nodes represent agents and edge weights the degree of preference of the corresponding endpoints. The happiness or utility of an agent for being in a coalition is the average value she ascribes to its members. We adopt Nash stable outcomes as the target solution concept; that is we focus on states in which no agent can improve her utility by unilaterally changing her own group. We provide existence, efficiency and complexity results for games played on both general and specific graph topologies. As to the efficiency results, we mainly study the quality of the best Nash stable outcome and refer to the ratio between the social welfare of an optimal coalition structure and the one of such an equilibrium as to the price of stability. In this respect, we remark that a best Nash stable outcome has a natural meaning of stability, since it is the optimal solution among the ones which can be accepted by selfish agents. We provide upper and lower bounds on the price of stability for different topologies, both in case of weighted and unweighted edges. Beside the results for general graphs, we give refined bounds for various specific cases, such as triangle-free, bipartite graphs and tree graphs. For these families, we also show how to efficiently compute Nash stable outcomes with provable good social welfare. |
| Date: | 2018–05–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02089363&r=all |