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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2025–12–08
two papers chosen by Viviana Di Giovinazzo, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca |
| By: | Álvarez Nogal, Carlos; Prados de la Escosura, Leandro |
| Abstract: | In early modern Spain, state capacity has been regarded as weak in the historical literature.In this paper, we assess the Spanish Monarchy's ability to implement its policies through anoutput measure rather than an input-specifically, the distribution of the Bull of theCrusade. Furthermore, we explore how shifts in state capacity influenced subjective wellbeing.In a religious society like early modern Spain, spiritual satisfaction functions as ameasure of subjective well-being. It was achieved by reducing the perceived time spent inPurgatory after death to atone for sins committed during life, which could be done bypurchasing indulgences. Consuming the Bull of the Crusade, an affordable form ofalmsgiving, granted a plenary indulgence and, therefore, eliminated the need for penance inthe afterlife for all sins committed prior to its purchase. Obtaining the bull reduced deathanxiety and increased life satisfaction. Our measure of subjective well-being-thelogarithmic ratio of bulls sold to the population, both normalised-indicates whetherspiritual satisfaction was attained. Subjective well-being declined in the late 1570s and1580s during years of severe financial crisis, in the 1640s during the Catalan Revolt, andcollapsed during Spain's War of Succession (1701-14) and its aftermath. Reductions in statecapacity coincided with decreases in spiritual satisfaction, while demand for bulls remainedrelatively stable over time. Declines in state capacity appear to be the primary factor behindthese decreases in spiritual satisfaction and, consequently, lower subjective well-being. |
| Keywords: | State capacity; Subjective well-being; Spiritual satisfaction; Early modern Spain; Bulls |
| JEL: | E70 H27 I31 N33 Z12 |
| Date: | 2025–11–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:48535 |
| By: | Chakrovorty, Sanchita |
| Abstract: | The overall health of a population can be viewed as an indicator of social welfare. Yet, individual health itself is complex and multidimensional, influenced by endogenous choices, as well as exogenous environmental and genetic factors. Moreover, defining a mapping from individual health to social welfare can involve onerous assumptions. This paper adopts a nonparametric approach to ranking individual health as a function of several biomarkers--Body Mass Index (BMI), glycohemoglobin (HbA1c), total cholesterol, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), serum creatinine, white blood cell counts (WBC), etc. With this ranking in hand, we use a nonparametric approach to map individual health into social welfare using minimal assumptions (e.g., monotonicity and concavity). Results show that the distribution of wellbeing became worse-off from 1988 to 2018, although there has been a slight rebound since 2009. Moreover, the distribution has widened: those prone to a higher health status have become better-off while those prone to poorer health have become worse-off which, thereby raising inequality and here policy implications need to be focused on. Finally, we construct counterfactual distributions of wellbeing to explore if the change in the distribution is attributed to socio-demographic factors. Findings show that age, gender and race/ethnicity cells combined with education can explain very little of the negative shift than the attributes without education while leaving a substantial portion unexplained. |
| Keywords: | Consumer/Household Economics |
| Date: | 2024–07–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea24:344176 |