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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2024‒03‒25
two papers chosen by |
| By: | Akay, Alpaslan; Bargain, Olivier; Jara Tamayo, H. Xavier |
| Abstract: | Subjective well-being (SWB) data are increasingly used to perform welfare analysis. Interpreted as “experienced utility”, it has recently been compared to “decision utility” using small-scale experiments most often based on stated preferences. We transpose this comparison to the framework of non-experimental and large-scale data commonly used for policy analysis, focusing on the income–leisure domain where redistributive policies operate. Using the British Household Panel Survey, we suggest a “deviation” measure, which is simply the difference between actual working hours and SWB-maximizing hours. We show that about three-quarters of individuals make decisions that are not inconsistent with maximizing their SWB. We discuss the potential channels that explain the lack of optimization when deviations are significantly large. We find proxies for a number of individual and external constraints, and show that constraints alone can explain more than half of the deviations. In our context, deviations partly reflect the inability of the revealed preference approach to account for labor market rigidities, so the actual and SWB-maximizing hours should be used in a complementary manner. The suggested approach based on our deviation metric could help identify labor market frictions. |
| Keywords: | decision utility; experienced utility; labor supply; subjective well-being |
| JEL: | C90 I31 J22 |
| Date: | 2023–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:117746&r=hap |
| By: | Hisaki KONO; Minhaj MAHMUD; Yasuyuki SAWADA; Nahoko MITSUYAMA; Tomomi TANAKA |
| Abstract: | Health interventions often fail to influence behavior because they overlook the choice architecture. We assess a unique intervention targeting women in rural Bangladesh, which emphasized health, hygiene, and nutrition’s role in skin beauty. This intervention aimed to attract the attention of women, who tend to be beauty-conscious. Using the high-dimensional covariate balancing propensity score method, we find significant impacts on beauty, health outcomes, social relationships, and subjective well-being. Our analysis suggests the intervention’s effectiveness is unlikely due to omitted variable bias. Using meta-analysis, we highlight its effectiveness in leveraging beauty salience compared with existing health and hygiene programs. |
| Keywords: | Hygiene, Health, Beauty. |
| JEL: | I1 D9 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kue:epaper:e-23-009&r=hap |