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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2024–11–25
five papers chosen by Viviana Di Giovinazzo, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca |
| By: | Marcin Rzeszutek (Faculty of Psychology [Warsaw] - UW - University of Warsaw); Jørgen Vitting Andersen (UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Adam Szyszka; Szymon Talaga (The Robert B. Zajonc Institute for Social Studies - UW - University of Warsaw) |
| Abstract: | This study aimed to connect the behavioral corporate finance perspective (micro level) with complexity theory via agent-based modeling to analyze the impact of selected psychological factors of chief executive officers (CEOs) on stock market volatility (macro level). Specifically, we wanted to explore whether Polish CEOs' subjective well-being (SWB) influenced their managerial decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic and how it might be related to the volatility of stock prices during this critical period in Poland. Our study was based on a survey of Polish CEOs who managed companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. In particular, 255 CEOs completed the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Scale, and a business survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on company management. Using the results of this survey, we built an agent-based model to investigate how CEOs' decision-making, stemming from their SWB levels, influences the perception of prices by individual traders and, in turn, how it is translated into aggregate stock market volatility. The results indicate the pathways through which the microscopic-level SWB of CEOs influences market price formation at a macroscopic level. The findings obtained from our model may shed new light on the rational expectations theory applied to stock market volatility during the financial crisis. |
| Keywords: | Subjective well-being, CEO, COVID-19, Stock market volatility, Rational expectations theory, Agent-based model |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04723512 |
| By: | Bosworth, Steven J.; Gimenez-Nadal, Jose Ignacio; Sevilla, Almudena |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the relationship between maternal education, child-care time, and well-being in the United States, with a particular focus on the role of societal norms. Highly educated mothers spend more time on childcare compared to their less educated counterparts. Drawing on data from the American Time Use Survey's Well-Being Modules (2012, 2013, 2021), this research provides a comprehensive examination of maternal activities and well-being. Notably, educated mothers consistently experience reduced instantaneous happiness during childcare, across various caregiving tasks, despite investing greater time in them. To better understand this pattern, we introduce an identity economics model whose predictions are consonant with the empirical findings. Our model illustrates how societal gender roles differentially influence patterns of time allocation by mothers' education and impact their instantaneous and overall well-being. |
| Keywords: | helicopter parenting; identity; instantaneous well-being; maternal time use |
| JEL: | D13 I31 J13 |
| Date: | 2024–10–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:125542 |
| By: | Bosworth, Steven J.; Gimenez-Nadal, José Ignacio; Sevilla, Almudena |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the relationship between maternal education, child-care time, and well-being in the United States, with a particular focus on the role of societal norms. Highly educated mothers spend more time on childcare compared to their less educated counterparts. Drawing on data from the American Time Use Survey's Well-Being Modules (2012, 2013, 2021), this research provides a comprehensive examination of maternal activities and well-being. Notably, educated mothers consistently experience reduced instantaneous happiness during childcare, across various caregiving tasks, despite investing greater time in them. To better understand this pattern, we introduce an identity economics model whose predictions are consonant with the empirical findings. Our model illustrates how societal gender roles differentially influence patterns of time allocation by mothers' education and impact their instantaneous and overall well-being. |
| Keywords: | helicopter parenting; identity; instantaneous well-being; maternal time use |
| JEL: | D13 I31 J13 |
| Date: | 2024–10–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:125809 |
| By: | Thomas Palley |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of different varieties of capitalism (VoC) on societal happiness. It begins with a critique of Neoclassical welfare economics which emphasizes Pareto optimality, and it argues for focusing on reported societal happiness. The paper identifies five VoC. Using a sample of twenty-six high-income countries drawn from the 2020 World Happiness Report, the paper shows societal happiness is systematically impacted by variety of capitalism type. Social Democratic economies report higher happiness levels. The US benefits from its standing as global economic hegemon, but it still reports lower happiness than Liberal and Social Democratic economies owing to its adverse societal relations. The public policy implication is the Social Democratic variety of capitalism produces greater societal happiness. More generally, happiness analysis can fill a gap in VoC theory and strengthen it by providing an operational form of welfare analysis. Making happiness the focus of attention will also likely change how economists interpret economies, which stands to change both economic theory and policy. |
| Keywords: | Happiness, varieties of capitalism, US hegemon, Liberal, Social Democratic, East Asian, Mediterranean Corporatist |
| JEL: | D6 P0 P1 P5 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imk:fmmpap:108-2024 |
| By: | Jan Fidrmuc; Maksym Obrizan; Piotr Stanek |
| Abstract: | We analyze the wellbeing socio-economic characteristics of Ukrainian refugees in Poland and compare them with their co-nationals who remained in Ukraine. Specifically, we identify the determinants of happiness, trust and self-declared health, and the patterns of self-selection into becoming a refugee in Poland. We focus on how having experienced violence in the course of the current conflict affects socio-economic outcomes of refugees and stayers. We find that the refugees are less well-off both economically and in terms of their general wellbeing (happiness). Having experienced violence does not seem to compel Ukrainians to become refugees, suggesting that they move preemptively, due to the threat of violence, and not after having experienced it. Having suffered violence, however, has a lasting adverse impact on the happiness, trust and health of Ukrainians in Poland and Ukraine alike. |
| Keywords: | refugees, violence, happiness, trust, health, Ukraine |
| JEL: | F22 F51 I10 I30 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11393 |