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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2026–04–13
three papers chosen by Viviana Di Giovinazzo, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca |
| By: | Li Kathrin Kaja Rupieper; Stephan Thomsen |
| Abstract: | Lifelong learning is increasingly recognized as important for individual well-being, but causal evidence on this relationship remains scarce. This paper evaluates the effects of non-formal adult education on life satisfaction by exploiting the substantial expansion of courses at East German Volkshochschulen (VHS) following reunification. Combining individual well-being data from SOEP with administrative VHS data, we use quasi-random variation in individuals’ exposure to courses to identify intention-to-treat effects. Estimation results denote small but significant and robust effects of VHS education on life satisfaction. Calculations of average treatment-on-the-treated effects suggest considerably stronger impacts among actual course participants. We furthermore reveal effect heterogeneity across demographic groups. In contrast to formal education, which is commonly found to raise aspirations, we find no corresponding effect of VHS education. Overall, our findings suggest that non-formal courses and training provide an easily accessible, low-cost means of adaptation in times of transformation. |
| Keywords: | Volkshochschule, adult education, transformation, SOEP, Germany, subjective well-being, natural experiment |
| JEL: | H52 I26 I31 N34 P29 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp1237 |
| By: | Martyna Kobus; Marek Kapera; Esfandiar Maasoumi |
| Keywords: | gender gaps; well-being; multivariate distribution; decomposition |
| JEL: | D30 I31 C02 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cxu:wpaper:51 |
| By: | Daniel Aromí (Universidad Catolica Argentina / Universidad de Bunoes Aires Argentina); Ann Mitchell (Universidad Catolica Argentina); Sophie Mitra (Fordham University) |
| Abstract: | Since the 1950s, GDP has been the most widely used measure of societal progress for countries around the world. Yet GDP is essentially a measure of current market production and does not capture the wellbeing of households, how growth is distributed, nor the negative effects of growth on the environment and wellbeing of future generations. An expanding literature on the Beyond-GDP agenda has proposed many alternative indicators and measurement systems. Yet, there is little quantitative evidence on whether this agenda is used in policy. This paper assesses the extent to which the Beyond-GDP agenda has made its way into legislative debates in the United States and Canada by estimating word frequency indices of Beyond-GDP keywords overall and by topic (cross-cutting, environmental, social) in the full corpus of legislative debate transcripts during 1996-2023. Keywords were selected based on a literature review and tested through validation exercises. The results show that while Beyond-GDP keywords are increasingly used in legislative debates in both countries, the frequency of usage began at a higher level and rose more in Canada than in the United States. A large language model is also used to assess whether the statements containing selected keywords are consistent with the Beyond-GDP agenda. The results based on a modified index, which incorporates these assessments, are unchanged. Overall, the findings suggest that the Beyond-GDP Agenda has not been uniformly embraced in policy across countries. The recent call for a renewed political commitment to the Beyond-GDP Agenda by the United Nations is warranted. |
| Keywords: | Beyond-GDP, GDP, text processing, large language model, legislative debates, Canada, United States |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frd:wpaper:dp2025-03er:dp2025-03 |