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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2024‒05‒20
six papers chosen by |
| By: | David G. Blanchflower; Alex Bryson; Xiaowei Xu |
| Abstract: | Across many studies subjective well-being follows a U-shape in age, declining until people reach middle-age, only to rebound subsequently. Ill-being follows a mirror-imaged hump-shape. But this empirical regularity has been replaced by a monotonic decrease in illbeing by age. The reason for the change is the deterioration in young people’s mental health both absolutely and relative to older people. We reconsider evidence for this fundamental change in the link between illbeing and age with micro data for the United States and the United Kingdom. Beginning around 2011 there is a monotonic and declining cross-sectional association between well-being and age. In the UK the recent COVID pandemic exacerbated the trends by impacting most heavily on the wellbeing of the young, but this was not the case in the United States. We replicate the decrease in illbeing by age across 34 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, using five ill-being metrics for the period 2020-2024 and confirm the findings. |
| JEL: | I31 I38 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32337&r=hap |
| By: | Heinz Welsch (University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Carbon pricing is on the rise, as evidenced, for example, by the European Commission’s proposal to extend the trade in carbon emissions to the building and transport sectors. An important feature of carbon pricing is that it generates revenues which can be rebated to households. Rebating the revenues from household sector carbon pricing on an equal-per-capita basis or recycling of revenues to those most affected economically can compensate inequitable impacts, which is expected to increase support for carbon mitigation. This paper addresses carbon pricing and the rebating of carbon pricing revenues from the perspective of their impacts on subjective well-being (SWB). Against the background of pertinent findings in well-being research the paper argues that the rebating of revenues from carbon pricing in the household sector may not be able to compensate the negative effects of carbon pricing on SWB. Referring to research on how energy affordability on the one hand and income on the other affect SWB, it is suggested that the net SWB effect of household sector carbon pricing and equal-per-capita rebating of revenues may be strictly negative. This is not only problematic per se, but all the more so because drops in SWB have been found to be strong predictors of populist voting, which poses a serious threat to carbon mitigation policy. |
| Keywords: | carbon pricing; rebating; energy affordability; subjective well-being; populist voting |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:old:dpaper:444&r=hap |
| By: | Jan Priewe |
| Abstract: | This paper compares living and working conditions in the U.S. and Germany for the year 2022 with a focus on economic, social and environmental standards. Twelve dimensions of comparison are used, split into 15 themes, which are examined with 80 indicators. Subjective indicators based on polls or surveys, such as happiness or quality of life in general, are explicitly avoided. A special emphasis is placed on median values instead of mean values if data allow. Emphasis is also placed on income and wealth inequality. The methodology, which focuses on only two countries in a granular approach, provides much more detailed information than methodologies used in other studies. This paper is, to the knowledge of the author, the only comprehensive comparison of living conditions in the U.S. and Germany. The result of the comparison shows that Germany scores 23 and the U.S. only 6. The framing of the comparison is the analysis of two different types of capitalism. It underlines the limited role of GDP per capita for the living conditions of the majority of the population while highlighting the impact of institutions and the type of the welfare state. |
| Keywords: | living conditions, quality of life, international comparisons, inequality, National Accounting |
| JEL: | P10 P16 P50 P51 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imk:studie:91-2024&r=hap |
| By: | Vincent Siegerink; Fabrice Murtin |
| Abstract: | This working paper provides an overview of a standardised Employee Well-being Survey implemented in four companies in Japan. This survey aligns with international measurement guidelines and practices, including the 2017 OECD Guidelines on Measuring the Quality of the Working Environment, it has been developed under the guidance of the Committee on Statistics and Statistical Policy, and it allows for the calculation at firm level of an equivalent of the Job Strain index, namely the third pillar of the OECD Job Quality framework. The objectives of the study were: i) to pilot the new Employee Well-being Survey at the firm level; ii) to demonstrate the potential of harmonised employee survey data as a source of information on business social performance, with associated benefits for companies, stakeholders, investors, governments and national statistical offices; and iii) to operationalise one element of a proposed framework on measuring non-financial performance of businesses. |
| Keywords: | corporate sustainability, Employee well-being, working conditions |
| JEL: | I31 J81 M54 C83 |
| Date: | 2024–05–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:wiseaa:24-en&r=hap |
| By: | Cantone, Giulio Giacomo; Tomaselli, Venera |
| Abstract: | Composite indexes are the alternative to GDP for the measurement of socio-economic dimensions, but they are sensitive to the specification of the model of measurement. This study adopts multiversal modelling to comparatively check the uncertainty of 68 models of aggregation of the Italian system of social-economic indicators of sustainable and equitable well-being (BES), across three paradigms for weighting schemes: vectorial distances, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and Benefit-of-Doubt. As a result, high-performing Italian provinces are associated with higher uncertainty in performance. Results plus theory discourage the adoption of the method of PCA with implicit weights for formative measurement models. Furthermore, switching from arithmetic mean to non-linear functions has no significant effect on the uncertainty of outcomes. |
| Date: | 2024–04–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:metaar:d5y26&r=hap |
| By: | Margolis, Louis |
| Abstract: | Les réformes des régimes de retraite ne manquent jamais de susciter de forts mouvements de résistance. Est-ce parce que la retraite est le gage d’un gain en bien-être ? En comparant les seniors actifs et les retraités du même âge, et en suivant les personnes autour du passage à la retraite, on constate qu’il n’en est rien. D’autres idées couramment partagées, concernant l’influence bénéfique d’un environnement rural, par exemple, se voient également démenties par les différentes enquêtes françaises et européennes que nous mobilisons. |
| Keywords: | France, Well-Being, Retraites |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpm:notobe:2404&r=hap |