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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2025–05–12
six papers chosen by Viviana Di Giovinazzo, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca |
| By: | Yarkin, Alexander |
| Abstract: | This paper documents the effects of home-country Internet expansion on immigrants' health and subjective well-being (SWB). Combining data on SWB and health from the European Social Survey (ESS) with data on 3G and overall Internet expansion (ITU and Collins Batholomew), I find that immigrants' SWB and health increase following home-country Internet expansion. This result is observed in both the TWFE, and event study frameworks. The effects are stronger for (i) first-generation immigrants, (ii) those less socially integrated at destination, and (iii) those with stronger family ties to the origins. Thus, while recent evidence points towards negative effects of the Internet and social media on user well-being, the effects are very different for immigrants. |
| Keywords: | subjective well-being, internet, immigration, health, social networks |
| JEL: | F22 I31 J15 J61 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17743 |
| By: | Hunt Allcott; Matthew Gentzkow; Benjamin Wittenbrink; Juan Carlos Cisneros; Adriana Crespo-Tenorio; Drew Dimmery; Deen Freelon; Sandra González-Bailón; Andrew M. Guess; Young Mie Kim; David Lazer; Neil Malhotra; Devra Moehler; Sameer Nair-Desai; Brendan Nyhan; Jennifer Pan; Jaime Settle; Emily Thorson; Rebekah Tromble; Carlos Velasco Rivera; Arjun Wilkins; Magdalena Wojcieszak; Annie Franco; Chad Kiewiet de Jonge; Winter Mason; Natalie Jomini Stroud; Joshua A. Tucker |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effect of social media deactivation on users’ emotional state in two large randomized experiments before the 2020 U.S. election. People who deactivated Facebook for the six weeks before the election reported a 0.060 standard deviation improvement in an index of happiness, depression, and anxiety, relative to controls who deactivated for just the first of those six weeks. People who deactivated Instagram for those six weeks reported a 0.041 standard deviation improvement relative to controls. Exploratory analysis suggests the Facebook effect is driven by people over 35, while the Instagram effect is driven by women under 25. |
| JEL: | I1 L82 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33697 |
| By: | Isaac Parkes |
| Abstract: | There is a pressing need for a universal measure of children's wellbeing, parallel to the WELLBY, for use in cost-benefit analysis. Currently, there is no consensus on how to value the wellbeing of children, raising concerns that their welfare is being undervalued in policy decisions. In this report, we discuss the issues inherent in measuring children's wellbeing and investigate a policy-oriented solution: the C-WELLBY. Children aged 10 and above generally demonstrate stable, valid responses to evaluative life satisfaction questions, as evidenced by analyses of both Understanding Society and the Active Lives of Children and Young People Survey. Consequently, we recommend the use of WELLBYs, valued at the usual £15, 920 in 2024 prices (HMT, 2021), for cost-benefit analyses of policy affecting this age group. For children aged below 10, we recommend estimating a C-WELLBY, also valued at £15, 920. |
| Keywords: | Wellbeing, Value for Money, VfM |
| Date: | 2025–04–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepops:69 |
| By: | Capra, C. Monica (Claremont Graduate University); Kniesner, Thomas J. (Claremont Graduate University) |
| Abstract: | Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman's last published paper is an adversarial collaboration in which he and Matthew Killingsworth reconcile conflicting empirical results from their previous research on income and reported happiness, with Barbara Mellers as a facilitator. The empirical results use quantile regression to allow for measured income heterogeneity effects that include notch points in the estimated marginal utilities of income. Our analysis examines Kahneman's last paper's conceptual innovations and challenges to assumptions about diminishing marginal utility of income. We review his contributions to emotional well-being measurement and employ a novel AI-simulated dialogue between the late Amos Tversky and Sir Angus Deaton to explore interdisciplinary perspectives on the findings. Our paper demonstrates how Kahneman's final research undermines recent arguments for incorporating income redistribution simply into benefit-cost analysis, suggesting that such objectives remain better addressed through fiscal policy rather than regulatory interventions. His final published work exemplifies Kahneman's commitment to empirical precision and theoretical flexibility, even when contradicting his earlier conclusions. |
| Keywords: | marginal utility, quantile regression, adversarial collaboration, well-being, income satiation, social welfare weights, simulated dialogue with AI |
| JEL: | D12 D61 H23 I31 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17841 |
| By: | Costa-Font, Joan (London School of Economics); Nici?ska, Anna (University of Warsaw); Rosello-Roig, Melcior (University of Rome) |
| Abstract: | Past trauma resulting from personal life shocks, especially during periods of particular volatility, such as regime transition (or regime change), can give rise to significant long-lasting effects on people's health and well-being. We study this question by drawing on longitudinal and retrospective data to examine the effect of past exposure to major individual-level shocks (specifically hunger, persecution, dispossession, and exceptional stress) on current measures of an individual's health and mental well-being. We study the effect of the timing of the personal shocks, alongside the additional effect of 'institutional uncertainty' of regime change in post-communist European countries. Our findings are as follows: First, we document evidence of the detrimental effects of shocks on a series of relevant health and well-being outcomes. Second, we show evidence of more pronounced detrimental consequences of such personal shocks experienced by individuals living in formerly communist countries (which accrue to about 8% and 10% in the case of hunger and persecution, respectively) than in non-communist countries. The effects are robust and take place in addition to the direct effects of regime change and shocks. |
| Keywords: | transition shocks, Soviet communism, later life health, health care system |
| JEL: | I18 H75 H79 |
| Date: | 2025–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17780 |
| By: | Kelly, Elish (ESRI, Dublin); McGuinness, Seamus (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin); Kenny, Eoin (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin) |
| Abstract: | Gaelic games are traditional Irish amateur sports, two of which are Gaelic football and hurling. Although the sports are amateur, the advances that have taken place in the games over the past decade have increased the commitments required of players, particularly those playing senior inter-county, the highest level that the games are played. The move towards professional standards in amateur games can potentially negatively impact various aspects of players lives, including their mental health. Using survey data captured from senior inter-county Gaelic footballers and hurlers, this paper contributes to the literature in this area by examining the impact that playing an amateur sport in a professional context can have on players’ mental wellbeing. The paper focusses specifically on identifying the effects that their sports-related commitments, along with their sports environment, can have on their mental health. The methodologies used in the paper account for biases related to non-random selection. |
| Keywords: | sports commitments, depression, WHO-5 wellbeing index, Gaelic games, amateur sports, PSM |
| JEL: | I10 I31 Z20 Z28 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17847 |