nep-hap New Economics Papers
on Economics of Happiness
Issue of 2021‒05‒03
three papers chosen by



  1. A year of pandemic: levels, changes and validity of well-being data from Twitter. Evidence from ten countries By Sarracino, Francesco; Greyling, Talita; O'Connor , Kelsey; Peroni, Chiara; Rossouw, Stephanie
  2. Pandemic Policy and Life Satisfaction in Europe By Andrew E. Clark; Anthony Lepinteur
  3. Organizing for Entrepreneurship: Field-Experimental Evidence on the Performance Effects of Autonomy in Choosing Project Teams and Ideas By Boss, Viktoria; Ihl, Christoph; Dahlander, Linus; Jayaraman, Rajshri

  1. By: Sarracino, Francesco; Greyling, Talita; O'Connor , Kelsey; Peroni, Chiara; Rossouw, Stephanie
    Abstract: In this article we describe how well-being changed during 2020 in ten countries, namely Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, South Africa, and Spain. Our measure of well-being is the Gross National Happiness (GNH), a country-level index built applying sentiment analysis to data from Twitter. Our aim is to describe how GNH changed during the pandemic within countries, to assess its validity as a measure of well-being, and to analyse its correlates. We take advantage of a unique data-set made of daily observations about GNH, generalized trust and trust in national institutions, fear concerning the economy, loneliness, infection rate, policy stringency and distancing. To assess the validity of data sourced from Twitter, we exploit various sources of survey data, such as Eurobarometer and consumer satisfaction, and big data, such as Google Trends. Results indicate that sentiment analysis of Tweets an provide reliable and timely information on well-being. This can be particularly useful to timely inform decision-making.
    Keywords: happiness,Covid-19,Big Data,Twitter,Sentiment Analysis,well-being,public policy,trust,fear,loneliness
    JEL: C55 I10 I31 H12
    Date: 2021
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:831&r=
  2. By: Andrew E. Clark (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Anthony Lepinteur (University of Luxembourg [Luxembourg])
    Abstract: We use data from the COME-HERE longitudinal survey collected by the University of Luxembourg to assess the effects of the policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic on life satisfaction in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden over the course of 2020. Policy responses are measured by the Stringency Index and the Economic Support Index from the Blavatnik School of Government. Stringency is systematically associated with lower life satisfaction, controlling for the intensity of the pandemic itself. This stringency effect is larger for women, those with weak ties to the labour market, and in richer households. The effect of the Economic Support is never statistically different from zero.
    Keywords: COVID-19,Life Satisfaction,Policy Stringency,Economic Support COVID-19,Economic Support.
    Date: 2021–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-03202345&r=
  3. By: Boss, Viktoria (TUHH); Ihl, Christoph (TUHH); Dahlander, Linus (ESMT Berlin); Jayaraman, Rajshri (ESMT Berlin and University of Toronto)
    Abstract: Organizations constantly strive to unleash their entrepreneurial potential to keep up with market and technology changes. To this end, they engage employees in practices like corporate crowdsourcing, incubators, accelerators or hackathons. These organizational practices emulate independent “green-field” entrepreneurship by relinquishing hierarchical control and granting employees autonomy in the choices of how to conduct work. We aim to shed light on two such choices that are fundamental in differentiating hierarchical from entrepreneurial modes of organizing work: (1) choosing projects ideas to work on and (2) choosing project teams to work with. Both of these choices are typically pre-determined in hierarchies and self-determined in entrepreneurship. We run a field experiment in an entrepreneurship course carefully designed to disentangle the separate and joint effects of granting autonomy in both choosing teams and choosing ideas compared to a pre-determined base case. Our results show that high autonomy in choosing implies a trade-off between personal satisfaction and objective performance. Self-determined choices along both dimensions promote subjective well-being in a complementary way, but their joint performance impact is diminishing. After ruling out alternative explanations related to differing project qualities and homophilic team choices, the detrimental performance impact of too much choice seems to be related to the implied cognitive burden and overconfidence.
    Keywords: teams; ideation; entrepreneurial performance; field experiment;
    JEL: L23 L26 M5
    Date: 2019–11–29
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:204&r=

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